HIV peaked in 1996, according to the United Nations

The number of HIV cases worldwide — 33 million — has remained steady during the last two years and the epidemic peaked in 1996, according to the United Nations, The Associated Press reports. The disease looks stable in most regions, except for Africa, according to the UN. "Last year, HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 72 percent of all 2.7 million new HIV cases worldwide." That comes coupled with the statistic that more than 4 million people are now on AIDS drugs around the world, "a 10-fold increase in five years."

"With the U.N.'s confirmation (that) HIV is now declining in most countries, some experts said the report should change the spending habits of international donors. Globally, HIV causes about 4 percent of all deaths, but gets about 23 cents of every public health dollar" (Cheng, 11/24).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.