UN report points to falling AIDS infection in children

In a report on the AIDS epidemic that would be widely cheered, the UN said yesterday that new HIV infections among children were dropping at a steady rate.

The report comes ahead of the International AIDS Conference  to be held in New York from 22 - 27 July. The conference aims to radically halt the spread of the HIV virus.

Around 34.2 million people worldwide were living longer years with the infection at the end last year, a higher figure from the previous year, thanks to better treatment that helped prolong the lives of patients.

A record 8 million people in low- and middle-income countries were receiving treatment with antiretrovirals last year across 33 countries since 2001, mostly in Africa and Asia. This was up 20 per cent from 2010, a separate report by UNAIDS released yesterday pointed out.

''The world deserves no less than a future of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths,'' Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS, wrote in yesterday's report.

(Also see: India's role commended)