AIDS pandemic

This new UNAIDS report contains the latest data on numbers of new HIV infections, numbers of people receiving antiretroviral treatment, AIDS-related deaths and HIV among children. It highlights new scientific opportunities and social progress which are bringing the world closer to UNAIDS vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

The report also gives an overview of international and domestic HIV investments and the need for greater value for money and sustainability.

Calling for global solidarity and shared responsibility, the UNAIDS report contains commentaries from global and community leaders as well as people living with and affected by HIV.

This year's report lays out a three-part, science-based agenda for ending the AIDS epidemic in our lifetimes and synthesizes the actions needed across the spectrum of existing, emerging and long-term biomedical HIV prevention tools that could change the AIDS response forever. As you will see, we have tried to capture the need to deliver, demonstrate and develop (and combine) across a range of prevention options.

The last decade saw a dramatic rise in resources devoted to addressing the HIV epidemic in low- and middle- income countries, contributing to significant scale up of treatment and prevention efforts. In marking the 30th year of the epidemic, UNAIDS recently reported that treatment access had increased more than 20 times and new infections fell by nearly 25% over the decade.1

The maturity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa has brought competing agendas for prevention and impact mitigation to the table. Given the countrys resource constraints it is imperative that any interventions are thoroughly assessed for their efficacy, costs and benefits.

This report outlines experience with ART in a number of sub-Saharan countries. ART is provided through a number of different avenues, which include the public sector, the non-profit sector, the corporate sector and the private sector. ART programmes may involve collaboration between two or more sectors with such partnerships being encouraged in recognition that the magnitude of the task may exceed the capacity of any one sector. Particular attention is paid to Botswana, the first sub-Saharan country to provide ART on a wide-scale through the public sector.