UN records massive rise in number of people receiving HIV treatment

(July 20,2010) The number of people receiving life-saving HIV treatment has soared by more than 1 million to 5.2 million, marking the largest jump ever, but donor contributions for AIDS efforts have fallen because of the global economic downturn, two new United Nations reports have found. The sharp rise last year in the number of people receiving treatment “is an extremely encouraging development,” said Hiroki Nakatani, Assistant Director-General for HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), which released one of the two new studies on Monday.
At the global XVIII International AIDS Conference under way in the Austrian capital Vienna, the agency also appealed for earlier treatment for people living with HIV before they become ill due to their weakened immune systems. “Starting treatment gives us an opportunity to enable people living with HIV to stay healthier and live longer,” said Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of HIV/AIDS at WHO.
HIV-related deaths can be reduced by 20 per cent between 2010 and 2015, if guidelines for treatment are broadly implemented, helping to prevent infections such as tuberculosis, the number one cause of death for people with HIV. WHO noted that deaths from TB can be curbed by up to 90 per cent if people living with both HIV and TB begin treatment earlier.