As world leaders prepare to meet at the United Nations General Assembly for a progress review of the Millennium Development Goals, a new report has been released from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS). This new report shows a dramatic acceleration toward reaching 2015 global targets on HIV.

New HIV infections in both adults and children were estimated at 2.3 million in 2012, showing a 33 percent reduction since 2001. New HIV infections in children dropped by 52 percent since 2001 to 260,000 in 2012. AIDS related deaths have also dropped 30 percent since a peak in 2005 as access to antiretroviral treatment has expanded.

By the end of 2012, around 9.7 million people in low and middle income countries were getting access to antiretroviral therapy, an almost 20 percent increase in just a year. In 2011, UN Member States agreed on a 2015 target of reaching 15 million people with HIV treatment. As countries scaled up their treatment coverage and new evidence emerged that showed the prevention benefits of antiretroviral therapy, the World Health Organization set new treatment guidelines, increasing the total number of people in need of treatment by more than 10 million.

“Not only can we meet the 2015 target of 15 million people on HIV treatment, we must also go beyond and have the vision and commitment to ensure no one is left behind,” said Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

Despite donor funding for HIV remaining around the same since 2008, domestic spending on HIV has increased. It accounted for 53 percent of global HIV resources in 2012. Total global resources for HIV in 2012 were estimated at 18.9 billion, a few billion short of the 22 to 24 billion estimated to be needed annually by 2015.

This new report not only outlines new global HIV estimates, but also reviews progress on ten specific targets that were set by United Nations Member States in 2011 UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS.

The report found that progress has been slow in ensuring respect of human rights, securing access to HIV services for people most at risk and preventing violence against women and girls. Gender inequality, punitive laws and discriminatory actions are continuing to hamper national responses to HIV. Concerted efforts are needed to address the obstacles before HIV service for those most in need can be scaled up.

The 2013 UNAIDS Report on the global AIDS epidemic is available online at unaids.org.