AIDS has now killed 25 million people around the world but the number of new infections is slowing sharply, the UN said in its annual report on the crisis today.
Almost 60 million people have been infected by the HIV virus since it was first recorded but prevention programmes are having a significant impact, the UNAIDS agency said in its latest report.
Around two million people died of the disease in 2008, bringing the overall toll to around 25 million since the virus was first detected three decades ago.
Some 2.7 million were newly infected in 2008, it added.
Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS executive director, said that the number of new human immunodeficiency (HIV) virus infections have been reduced by 17 per cent over the past eight years with some of the most notable progress reported in Africa.
HIV incidence has fallen by 25 per cent since 2001 in East Africa while the figure for the sub-Saharan Africa as a whole was around 15 per cent -- equating to around 400,000 fewer infections in 2008, said the report.
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In South and South East Asia, HIV incidence has declined by 10 per cent in the same time period.
"The good news is that we have evidence that the declines we are seeing are due, at least in part, to HIV prevention," Sidibe said in a statement.