Last year, the number of people tested for HIV doubled in dozens of countries, resulting not only in improved AIDS detection, but contributing also to a major surge in those getting treated for the disease.
United Nations 2009 progress report on HIV and AIDS reveals, the numbers of people from the developing world taking anti-retroviral drugs has risen by over a million to surpass 4-million globally.
A growing number of children with AIDS, largely left to die quick, unheralded deaths in past years, also benefitted from life-saving drug therapies, in large part due to the vast international AIDS effort financed by USA, European countries and other donors, their numbers rising from 2007's 198,000 to 275,700 in 2008.
Mothers from parts of Africa hit hardest by the disease, also saw a marked increase in numbers of those getting medicines to prevent their babies from getting infected with H. I. V., a huge ramping up of AIDS services that made 2008 an extraordinary year, according to Mark Stirling, United Nations Regional Director for AIDS in eastern and southern Africa.
However, there was sobering news as well in the United Nations' progress report on AIDS, with over a million people put on drugs, they required for the rest of their lives i. e. there were 2.7-million people newly infected with H. I. V. in 2007.
The United Nations report published by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the United Nations AIDS programme stresses the groundwork laid by African countries this past year for offering circumcisions for men. Studies have found that foreskin removal cuts a man's risk of H. I. V. infection by more than half.
However, health officials, experts and advocates advice the need for political leaders, particularly in Africa, to be far more outspoken about how multiple long-term sexual partners fuels the AIDS epidemic, while the risk of infection can be reduced with circumcision.
South Africa has more H. I. V.-positive citizens than any other country, as its numbers of people getting anti-retroviral drugs grows faster than in any other country, and it has by far the largest AIDS treatment programme in the world. According to the United Nations an estimated 700,000 South Africans were getting medication, though the number is actually closer to 600,000 after discounting those who dies or dropped out.
Mark Heywood, Executive Director, AIDS Law Project and Deputy Chairman of the South African National AIDS Council responsible for advising the government said: 'South Africa will get its act together, but it hasn't at the moment.'
A new study on an AIDS vaccine funded by U. S. National Institutes of Health involving 16,000-adults in Thailand represents the first break through since the mid-1990s, when potent drug cocktails i. e. a mix of protease inhibitors and other anti-retrovirals, helped transform AIDS from a virtual death sentence, into a chronic though manageable disease.
Clinical trial results of the vaccine reveal it is safe and is effective in reducing the chances of getting infected with AIDS causing human immunodeficiency virus or HIV by 31%. Specifically designed for use in Thailand, the vaccine is based on the subtype B and E strains of HIV more common here.
It remains unclear whether the vaccine would work in Africa where subtypes, A, C and D predominate.
Two thirds of 33-million people infected with HIV live in Africa, with 75% of all AIDS-related deaths in 2008 occurring there.
Of all racial and ethnic groups in USA, African-Americans have been hardest hit by HIV and AIDS, though the reasons have no direct relation to race or ethnicity. Rather they are due to the barriers African-Americans face, including poverty (being poor), sexually transmitted diseases, and stigma.
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