Annual HIV infections down by a quarter in Asia-Pacific since 2001
Play
New HIV infections were down in 2012 by 26 per cent since 2001 in the Asia-Pacific region, to an estimated 350,000,clinching the region's reputation as an Aids-response success story, the United Nations said Tuesday.
"The Aids response in Asia and the Pacific has seen some of the world's greatest successes," said Michel Sidibe, UN Aids Executive Director, in the foreword to the report titled HIV in Asia and the Pacific 2013.
Nearly half of the region's HIV cases, or 1.24 million people, had access to treatment in 2012, an increase of 46 per cent from 2009,the report said.
"As a result, for many of the 4.9 million people living with HIV(world wide), the disease is no longer a death sentence, but a manageable chronic condition," said the report.//DPA
