Global AIDS infection rate decreases notably: UN report

GENEVA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- There has been a 17-percent decrease in the global AIDS infection rate during the past eight years, said a United Nations report released here Tuesday.

Since 2001, when the United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was signed, the number of new infections has dropped by 15 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, 25 percent in South Asia and 10 percent in Southeast Asia, according to the joint report released by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO).

"International and national investment in HIV treatment scale-up have yielded concrete and measurable results," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a statement. "We cannot let this momentum wane. Now is the time to redouble our efforts and save many more lives."

"The good news is that we have evidence that the declines we are seeing are due, at least in part, to HIV prevention," said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe.

Sidibe said that the findings also show that prevention programming is often off the mark and that people do a better job of getting resources and programs to where they would make the most impact, then quicker progress can be made and more lives saved.