AIDS Epidemic 'Stabilising'

After 27 years and the loss of more than 25 million lives, the global AIDS pandemic has at last stabilised, but more funds and a breakthrough in disease prevention are needed to sustain this progress and roll back the threat, UNAIDS said on Tuesday.

Deaths from AIDS-related illnesses fell in 2007 for the second year running, thanks mainly to the widening distribution of drugs to control the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that wrecks immune defences, an UNAIDS report said.

Mortality from AIDS last year was around two million -- some 200,000 deaths fewer than in 2005.

The tally of people living with HIV last year is put at around 33 million, compared with 32.7 million in 2006, according to the report, issued ahead of the 17th International AIDS Conference , opening in Mexico City on Sunday.

Some 2.7 million people became newly infected last year.(keep reading)