Global Pulse Blog

This week at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria, the World Health Organization announced that 5.2 million people in low- and middle-income countries received antiretroviral drugs for their HIV infections in 2009. This represents the largest increase in the number of people accessing treatment in a single year, with an additional 1.2 million people added to the four million who received antiretroviral therapy in 2008. While the increasing access to antiretrovirals is encouraging, over 10 million people infected with the HIV virus worldwide are still in need of therapy.

The WHO is calling for earlier treatment of those infected with the HIV virus, suggesting that if people are treated before their immune systems become weakened by the virus, HIV-related mortality can be reduced by 20% between 2010 and 2015. In addition, early therapy also has a benefit in preventing transmission of the virus. These new guidelines expand the number of people eligible for antiretroviral therapy from around 10 million to about 15 million people. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that the cost needed for HIV treatment in 2010 will be about US$ 9 billion.