The number of new HIV infections is declining. From 1997 to 2010, the number had fallen by 21 percent to 2.67 million worldwide, according to the latest report from the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), presented on Monday in Berlin.

According to the report, almost half of all pregnant women with HIV had received drugs to prevent passing the virus to their children.

The success of this program was demonstrated best in Botswana where, in 2003, 21 percent of the babies born to HIV-infected mothers were also infected. In 2010, that number dropped to 4 percent thanks to antiviral therapies distributed to more than 90 percent of the mothers.

Fewer AIDS deaths

Deaths from AIDS have also decreased. Last year, 1.8 million people worldwide died of the incurable immune deficiency disease, but UNAIDS estimated 700,000 deaths were prevented through the supply of drugs used against the virus.

UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibé points to a significant change in the global fight against the spread of the pandemic in the last 12 months, noting more breakthroughs and successes in research - despite empty coffers and uncertain funding.

"Never before in so many countries, was the number of new cases significantly reduced," Sidibé said.

Therapies are effective

In the developed world, some 2.5 million deaths have been prevented with drugs. About half of those infected had access to effective therapies - many more than just two years earlier, the report noted.

Pointed out in the report for their especially good care were countries such as Cambodia, Chile, Croatia, Cuba, while others such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Tunisia and Ukraine were noted for worse performance.

Most infected people live in South Africa

UNAIDS estimated the total number of people infected and suffering from AIDS at the end of 2010 was 34 million worldwide compared with 28.6 million in 2001. About 68 percent of all people with AIDS (22.9 million) live in sub-Saharan Africa. This area also accounts for 70 percent of new infections.

In South Africa alone, an estimated 5.6 million more people are infected with HIV than in any other country in the world. But at least there, the number of new infections is declining steeply - as in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the report stated.

Rapid increase in Russia and Ukraine

The number of people infected with HIV in Western and Central Europe was reported to be about 840,000, with 30,000 new infections and 9,900 AIDS deaths in 2010. Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a 250 percent increase was visible between 2001 and 2010, where there are 1.5 million infected people.

Of these, only 90 percent were from Russia and Ukraine. A predominant cause in these countries is contaminated medical equipment. The number of AIDS deaths is now estimated at 90,000 for 2010, compared with 2001, when there were 7,800.

The Robert Koch Institute in Berlin reported that, for Germany, there were around 2,700 new infections in 2011, compared with 2,885 in 2009. Germany has approximately 73,000 people living with HIV.

Despite decades of searching, there remains no AIDS vaccine. Education, prevention and the strengthening of women's rights are the only tools in the fight against the incurable disease.

Author: Eleanor Uhlich (sjt) (AP, Reuters)
Editor: John Blau