According to Yahoo News, "In fact, earlier this month a United Nations report found that the number of people infected with HIV globally has remained unchanged, at about 33 million, for the past two years, and may have peaked in the late 1990s."

Wow!

A report released in October by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and UNAIDS found that 42 percent of people in the developing world who carry HIV now have access to life-extending medications. By the end of 2008, more than 4 million people worldwide were on antiretroviral medicines -- 2.9 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where the bulk of HIV-positive people live. That's a tenfold increase in access over the prior five years.

It's always interesting to see the facts and figures both locally and nationally. HIV/AIDS does not discriminate.

"I think this has come about through a number of organizations that have been trying to get drugs to be available to people in the developing world," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He especially credited the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), begun under the second Bush presidency, which he said "is responsible for over 2 million people being on therapy."

In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. National Institutes of Health are planning major studies in New York City and Washington, D.C., to see if better identification and treatment of HIV-positive people can help keep infection rates down across the community as a whole, Johnston said.

According to Yahoo News, "In October, researchers reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine confirmed that a combination of two vaccines brought about a modest, 31 percent reduction in infection rates among a cohort of 16,000 young adult volunteers in Thailand who were tracked for about three years. Analysis of the trial data suggested that the vaccines' effect faded with time, however, and was less effective in those at highest risk of HIV, such as sex workers or IV drug abusers."

"It's a proof of concept that maybe you can cure HIV," she said. "So, there's been interest in finding out where you could do something similar with using gene therapy, for example," bypassing the need for dangerous stem cell transplants.

And in policy news, the Obama administration in late October lifted a decades-old ban on foreigners with HIV entering the United States. As reported by the Associated Press, Obama described the ban as a policy "rooted in fear rather than fact," and said its removal would encourage HIV testing and help save lives.

According to Yahoo News, "As Fauci pointed out, the annual rate of new infections in the United States has been stuck at a dismal 56,000 for the past decade.

"We've sort of hit a wall to get below that number," he said. "We need to intensify the multifaceted prevention efforts that are ongoing."

My thoughts....

Today is World AIDS Day and I hope that this information is helpful to all who are clearly aware of the epidemic and are fighting to help make sure their are resources available to both educate and bring awareness to the disease and I hope this informs those who are not aware of the effects of HIV/AIDS and this inspires them to get involved and learn more about people who are infected and to learn more about how they can help educate and empower other young people to do some work around HIV/AIDS.

For more information about this article, please click here!

Again, WORLD AIDS DAY, we remember those who have lost their lives in the struggles, those who are still fighting, and those who give support to people living with it everyday.