LONDON: An end to the worldwide Aids epidemic is in sight, the United Nations says, mainly due to better access to drugs that can both treat and prevent the incurable human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the disease.
Progress over the past decade has cut the death toll and helped stabilise the number of people infected with HIV, the UN Aids programme said in its annual report yesterday.
The global community has embarked on an historic quest to lay the foundation for the eventual end of the Aids epidemic. This effort is more than merely visionary. It is entirely feasible,” Unaids said.
Some 34 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2011, the report said. Deaths from Aids fell to 1.7 million in 2011, down from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005 and from 1.8 million in 2010.
Worldwide, the number of people newly infected with HIV, which can be transmitted via blood and by semen during sex, is also falling. At 2.5 million, the number of new infections in 2011 was 20 percent lower than in 2001. Although Aids remains one of the world’s most serious health challenges, global solidarity in the Aids response during the past decade continues to generate extraordinary health gains,” the report said.
It said this was due to “historic success” in bringing HIV programmes to scale.
REUTERS
