UNAIDS publishes a new "Report on the global AIDS epidemic" every two years. The Report draws upon and publishes the best available data from countries and provides an overview and commentary on the epidemic and the international response.

CHAPTER 1: Key Findings

❏ This report provides the most comprehensive global assessment ever undertaken of the response to HIV, being based on reports from 147 countries on national progress in implementing the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.

❏ Unprecedented numbers of civil society groups have joined their government counterparts and participated in this reporting process, using their participation as a means to communicate to the world on the situation within their country.

❏ The HIV response is critical to progress across the breadth of the global development agenda. A 6-fold increase in financing for HIV programmes in low- and middle-income countries is beginning to bear fruit, with many countries making major progress in lowering AIDS deaths and preventing new infections.

❏ Progress remains uneven, however, and the epidemic’s future is still uncertain, underscoring the need for intensified action to move towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support.

❏ Achieving the many political commitments made on HIV will require stronger leadership, building on recent successes, taking account of lessons learnt, increased financial resources, improved coordination of effort, and effective action to address societal determinants of HIV risk and vulnerability.

❏ Monitoring and evaluation systems are being strengthened, largely with external funds, because countries are only beginning to avail themselves of the standard provision that up to 10% of programme funds can be directed to strengthening such systems.

Visit 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic Website

You can download full publication in PDF format.

UNAIDS/08.25E / JC1510E (English original, August 2008)
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 2008.
ISBN 978 92 9 173711 6

Download 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic

ZIP. PDF format, 8.3MB, 362Pages.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Figures
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Chapter 1: The global HIV challenge: assessing progress, identifying obstacles,
renewing commitment 11
Chapter 2: Status of the global HIV epidemic 29
Chapter 3: Addressing societal causes of HIV risk and vulnerability 63
Chapter 4: Preventing new HIV infections: the key to reversing the epidemic 95
Chapter 5: Treatment and care: unprecedented progress, remaining challenges 129
Chapter 6: Mitigating the epidemic’s impact on households, communities, and societies 159
Chapter 7: Where do we go from here? Sustaining an effective, robust HIV response for the long-term 187
Annex l: HIV and AIDS estimates and data, 2007 and 2001 211
Annex ll: Country Progress Indicators 235
References 325
Photo credits 356

FORWARD
The 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic confirms that the world is, at last, making some real progress in its response to AIDS.

Governments are acting on their promises at the 2006 United Nations High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, to scale up towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support by 2010. As of 2008, a small number of countries are already providing universal access to antiretroviral treatment and to services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Others are well on the way to doing so. In more and more countries, HIV infection levels are falling.

But this is only the beginning. Twenty-seven years into the epidemic, AIDS continues to challenge all of our efforts. Today, for every two people who start taking antiretroviral drugs, another five become newly infected. Unless we take urgent steps to intensify HIV prevention we will fail to sustain the gains of the past few years, and universal access will simply be a noble aspiration.

This 2008 global report is the most comprehensive ever, based on country inputs with unprecedented scope and detail. It contains valuable information about what works and why, as well as highlighting the key challenges we face in our quest to respond effectively to AIDS—now and in the decades to come.

AIDS is a supremely complex issue that demands an unparalleled response from all sectors of society, worldwide. But as this report shows, it is increasingly evident that—given the will and given the resources—we can do it.

Dr Peter Piot
UNAIDS Executive Director and
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

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