MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti) - The global HIV epidemic is smaller than previous UN estimates, according to an analysis published in medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday.
“Our estimates of the number of people living with HIV are 18.7 percent smaller than UNAIDS's estimates in 2012,” the report said, adding that “the number of people living with HIV, tuberculosis, or malaria have all decreased since 2000.”
The study conducted by a team of international researchers and funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reviewed data presented in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.
According to its findings, in 2013 there were 1.8 million new HIV infections, 29.2 million HIV cases and 1.3 million HIV deaths as opposed to the epidemic’s peak in 2005, when the disease took 1.7 million lives. It also highlights that anti-AIDS drugs have saved more than 19 million years of human life since 1900, 70 percent of them in developing countries.
The purpose of study was to assess whether the progress has occurred since the adoption of UN Millennium Development Goal 6, aiming at combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. From 2000 to 2011 global investments in HIV prevention and treatment amounted to $51.6 billion.
