UN Sees Progress in Battle Against HIV

Pace on new infections dropping among newborns

Progress in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic is "quickening," according to the United Nations agency charged with the battle.

But millions of people continue to get infected yearly and millions who need therapy still can't get it, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said in a report released Tuesday.

Despite that, "we are really seeing a quickening in the pace of progress over the past 2 years," Bernhard Schwartländer, MD, the agency's director of evidence, innovation, and policy, said in a conference call about the report.

For instance, he said, the number of infections in newborns fell by 23% in 2009 and 2010, compared with a 19% drop in the 6 years from 2002 through 2008.