Morning Briefing

"Global progress in both preventing and treating HIV emphasizes the benefits of sustaining investment in HIV/AIDS over the longer term," according to a new report from the WHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS, which also "indicates that increased access to HIV services resulted in a 15 percent reduction of new infections over the past decade and a 22 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths in the last five years," a WHO press release reports (11/30). The report, titled "Progress report 2011: Global HIV/AIDS response," notes that "[a]s capacity at all levels increases, programs are becoming more effective and efficient," but "financial pressures on both domestic and foreign assistance budgets are threatening the impressive progress to date. Recent data indicating that HIV funding is declining is a deeply troubling trend that must be reversed for the international community to meet its commitments on HIV" (11/30).