New HIV infections in South Asia, including India, have reduced by at least 10 percent, while globally, it has come down by 17 percent in the last eight years, the UNAIDS said in a new report Tuesday.
“Since 2001, when the United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was signed, the number of new infections in sub-Saharan Africa is approximately 15 percent lower, which is about 400,000 fewer infections in 2008,” the UN agency said.
The UN body said that "...in the 2009 AIDS epidemic update, new HIV infections have been reduced by 17 percent over the past eight years".
“In East Asia, new HIV infections declined by nearly 25 percent and in South and South East Asia by 10 percent in the same time period. In Eastern Europe, after a dramatic increase in new infections among injecting drug users, the epidemic has levelled off considerably,” the health monitoring body said.
The worldwide release of the report by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO), highlights that beyond the peak and natural course of the epidemic - HIV prevention programmes are making a difference.
“The good news is that we have evidence that the declines we are seeing are due, at least in part, to HIV prevention,” said Michel Sidib