As Global Deaths Decline, AIDS Research Funding Slips

November 23, 2011

As the United Nations marks World AIDS Day this year (Dec. 1) it is celebrating a major milestone: a drop in the number of AIDS-related deaths around the world. But funding for continued AIDS research and treatment is also dropping for the first time in the 30-year old epidemic, and health experts warn that this trend must be reversed if the spread of the disease is to be halted

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A new United Nations report says the number of people worldwide becoming infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has dropped by 21 percent since the global epidemic peaked in 1997. Those new infections have plateaued at about 2.7 million cases per year.

The report says 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV due to improved access to drug treatments.

Michel Sidibe, executive director of the joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, says 2011 has been a milestone year in the global fight against AIDS.

"You know, for us this year is a game-changing year. It is the first time that the science was telling us, if we put people on treatment early, we can reduce the new infection rate by ninety-six percent. So, we are dropping this false dichotomy between prevention and treatment," Sidibe said.

Timely drug therapies have slowed the pace of HIV deaths and new infections, and helped avert an estimated 700,000 AIDS-related deaths.