TUESDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- International health
officials on Tuesday reported continued headway against HIV/AIDS
-- not only with a drop in the number of new HIV infections, but
also a dramatic rise in the number of people in treatment. That
translates to 500,000 fewer people dying worldwide from AIDS in
2011 than died from the disease in 2005, the experts said. Many
of these gains are to be seen in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the
hardest-hit regions of the world, according to the report from
the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). For
instance, rates of new HIV infections have declined by 73
percent in Malawi, 71 percent in Botswana, 68 percent in
Namibia, 58 percent in Zambia, 50 percent in Zimbabwe and 41
percent each in South Africa and Swaziland since 2001. "These
are very, very impressive figures in countries like Malawi,
which are on the lower end of the income scale and are managing
a very large number of HIV infections in their countries," Dr.
Bernhard Schwartlander, directo