UN Report 2013:AIDS related Deaths declined Globally

The global rate of HIV infection and the number of AIDS-related deaths were significantly reduced, thanks to expanding access to treatment, the  Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in its report issued on 23 September 2013 showed dramatic acceleration towards reaching 2015 global targets on HIV.  

New HIV infections among adults and children were estimated at 2.3 million in 2012, a 33% reduction since 2001. New HIV infections among children have been reduced to 260 000 in 2012, a reduction of 52% since 2001. AIDS-related deaths have also dropped by 30% since the peak in 2005 as access to antiretroviral treatment expands.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS can be transmitted via blood, breast milk and by semen during sex, but can be kept in check with cocktails of drugs known as antiretroviral treatment or therapy.

By the end of 2012, some 9.7 million people in poorer and middle-income countries had access to such AIDS drugs, an increase of nearly 20 percent in a year. Since 2001, the UN report said, there has been a 52 percent drop in annual new HIV infections among children and a 33 percent reduction in newly infected adults and children combined.

In 2011, UN member states agreed to a target of getting HIV treatment to 15 million people by 2015. As countries scaled up treatment coverage and as evidence showed how treating HIV early also reduces its spread, the World Health Organization set new guidelines this year, expanding the number of people needing treatment by more than 10 million.

The UNAIDS report found that despite a flattening in donor funding for HIV, which has remained near 2008 levels, individual countries' domestic spending on the epidemic has increased, accounting for 53 percent of global HIV resources in 2012.

Total funding for the global fight against HIV and AIDS in 2012 was 18.9 billion US dollars, about 3 billion to 5 billion US dollars short of the estimated 22 billion US dollars to 24 billion US dollars needed annually by 2015.