UN: Progress against HIV in poor countries

WASHINGTON -- A push to get more AIDS treatment to the world's poorest, hardest-hit countries is paying off as deaths inch down -- and new infections are dropping a bit, too, the United Nations reported yesterday.

"I personally believe it is a new era, new era for treatment, new era for prevention," said Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS.

Some 34.2 million people worldwide were living with the AIDS virus at the end last year, a slight rise from 2010 as better treatment helps patients live longer.

Most of them live in low- and middle-income countries, where a record 8 million people received lifesaving drugs last year. That's up from 6.6 million in 2010, and puts the world on track to meet a UN goal of 15 million people in those regions on treatment by 2015.

The report came days before the world's largest AIDS conference opens in Washington with the goal of finally "turning the tide." -- AP