U.N. report shows world AIDS deaths edging down

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of people killed by AIDS worldwide edged down for a second straight year in 2007 after rising for more than two decades, amid intensified global efforts to fight the disease, a U.N. agency said on Tuesday.

The AIDS epidemic is far from over, but appears to have leveled off with more people getting life-extending drugs and the number of new HIV infections falling in many places, UNAIDS said in a report.

Officials with Geneva-based UNAIDS and outside activists said much more needed to be done to beat this modern scourge.

Dr. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Washington-based activist group Global AIDS Alliance, said the report showed the big increase in spending on prevention and treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere had produced results.

"Based on this evidence, it's time to ramp up funding from all sources -- not to slow down or go on to other things. We're on the path toward victory here. Let's invest more," he said.

Global AIDS deaths numbered about 2 million in 2007, down from 2.1 million in 2006, UNAIDS said. AIDS deaths peaked in 2005 at 2.2 million after a steady climb since the disease was first identified in the early 1980s, UNAIDS said.

"A six-fold increase in financing for HIV programs in low- and middle-income countries (from) 2001-2007 is beginning to bear fruit, as gains in lowering the number of AIDS deaths and preventing new infections are apparent in many countries," according to the report issued before an international AIDS conference in Mexico next week.

"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," the report read.