AIDS Pandemic in Decline

World health agencies confirmed for the first time that the AIDS pandemic is on a downward trend.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic that started 28 years ago and has killed more than 25 million people is now officially in decline.

In their 2009 AIDS report, UNAids and the World Health Organization confirmed the prognosis, saying that the number of new infections has declined by almost a third since peaking in the mid 1990s.

In 2008, the health agencies had warned that AIDS might have some more unpleasant surprises in store. But they are now more upbeat.

The UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/Aids in 2001 generated intensive prevention programs and educational measures for the hardest hit regions. They appear to have worked.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of the global malady. Sixty-eight percent of those infected live there. AIDS and related illnesses like tuberculosis still rank among the top causes of death. 

But according to surveys, young people in Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe and other countries are engaging in less risky sexual behaviour and this has helped to decrease the number of new infections in those regions to 25 percent below the worst infection rates in 1995.

AIDS continues to be a huge burden. Because the success of prevention programs is lowering the number of AIDS-related deaths, the number of people living with the virus and needing continuing treatment is increasing.

At the press conference for the AIDS report’s launch in Shanghai, Dr. Karen Stanecki, senior adviser to UNAids, emphasized: “We are facing a great many challenges. There are still 7,400 new infections a day. For every five people who become infected, two start on treatment. So we still have a long way to go."