UN: Ending AIDS is possible after four decades

Dec 1, 2011, 17:21 GMT

New York - The United Nations said Thursday, World AIDS Day, that the international community is in a position to end the AIDS epidemic four decades after its discovery and after 25 million deaths.

'The progress we have made so far is proof that we can realize our vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths,' UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

While highlighting critical progress in the global anti-AIDS campaign, the World Health Organization and relief agencies involved in the campaign cautioned that funding shortfalls may imperil the advances against the epidemic.

The European Union said in a study of HIV/AIDS that the 'biggest progress' was registered in the most affected Sub-Saharan countries, where two-thirds of the world's HIV-infected people are living.

The EU contributed nearly 1.5 billion dollars last year to the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, about 53 per cent of total contributions.

The EU said more than 8 million people in low and middle income countries still need access to effective treatment, while new infections are outpacing the number of people starting on treatment.

'This means that HIV and AIDS continue to be a major obstacle to development in these countries,' the EU said.

WHO and UNAIDS said an estimated 34 million people are living with the AIDS virus worldwide.

Organizations fighting HIV/AIDS said funding has declined, just as effective treatment has began to reach more infected people.

WHO, UNAIDS and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) concurred that the world is delivering medicines and treatment to HIV-infected people more effectively, with the participation of local communities and health services.

The WHO report said annual funding dropped to 15 billion dollars in 2010, from 15.9 billion dollars in 2009. The UN estimated the price tag on a continuing comprehensive response to the epidemic at 22 billion dollars a year by 2015.

The report said recent years' decline in funding could hurt progress in the distribution of effective anti-retroviral treatments.

The number of new HIV infections fell to 2.7 million in 2010, down from 3.1 million in 2001, while the number of people getting life-saving AIDS drugs rose to 6.65 million in 2010 from just 400,000 in 2003, according to the report.

Read more about AIDS

Read more about UN