New HIV Infections Fall as AIDS Epidemic Stabilizes Katie Nguyen - Thomson Reuters Foundation
go to original July 17, 2014

A child flies a kite with a red ribbon during a World AIDS Day event in Beijing. (Reuters/Jason Lee)

If the world could rally to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, 18 million new HIV infections and 11.2 million AIDS-related deaths would be averted, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

It said new HIV infections and deaths from AIDS were decreasing, making it possible to control the epidemic by 2030 and eventually end it "in every region, in every country".

Here is the latest global and regional picture of HIV and AIDS from a report by UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

• An estimated 35 million people worldwide had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS in 2013, according to the UNAIDS data, up 21 percent on 2001, when 28.9 million were living with HIV.

• There were 2.1 million new HIV infections in 2013, a decline of 38 percent from 2001, when there were 3.4 million new infections.

• There were 1.5 million AIDS-related deaths in 2013, down 35 percent from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005.

• Globally 12.9 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy by the end of 2013. However, 22 million people, or three out of five people living with HIV, still do not have access to antiretroviral therapy.

• Fifteen countries account for 73 percent of all people living with HIV: South Africa, Nigeria, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, China, Ethiopia, Russia, Brazil and the United States.    

• 42 countries have laws specifically criminalizing HIV non-disclosure, exposure and transmission.

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