HIV programmes reduce deaths and new infections, UNAIDS report shows

The past two years have seen "a tripling of HIV prevention efforts in some countries for populations most at risk," said Paul De Lay, director of monitoring and evaluation at UNAIDS. Prevention education has been integrated into 90% of primary school education in sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 65% worldwide, the report states.

"Young people are waiting longer to become sexually active," Dr De Lay said. For example, in Cameroon the percentage of young people having sex before the age of 15 has fallen from 35% in 2005 to 14% in 2007. The use of antiretroviral drugs at the time of birth to prevent mother to child transmission of the virus has risen from 14% to 33% worldwide in the past two years.

As a result of these changes, the number of new infections in people under the age of 15 worldwide has fallen from 410 000 to 370 000.

"There are now three million people receiving antiretroviral treatment in middle and low income countries at the end of 2007, an increase of one million just in the last year alone," Dr De Lay said. That has led to a decline in the number of deaths from AIDS from 2.2 million to two million.

"However, there are still five new infections for every two people who are newly started on treatment. Clearly we are not pushing back the epidemic . . . AIDS continues to be the leading cause of death in Africa and it is among the top 10 leading causes of death globally," he added.

"HIV requires a long term response grounded in both evidence and human rights," said Purnima Mane, deputy executive director of the UN Population Fund. It requires leadership, partnership, and sustainable funding, with interventions tailored to the local epidemic.

The 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic used 25 indicators to track progress and compare countries.

The 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic is at awww.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/GlobalReport/2008/2008-gr-mediakit.asp