Since scientists identified the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the 1980s, it has spread relentlessly, causing one of the most devastating pandemics ever recorded in human history. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), nearly 30 million people have died from HIV-related causes and roughly 34 million are living with HIV.

But concerted global efforts to battle the pandemic are beginning to make a noticeable difference.

• According to UNAIDS, the annual rate of new HIV infections declined from an estimated 3.1 million in 1999 to roughly 2.6 million in 2009. This apparent decline is to some extent explained by improvements in disease surveillance and data collection. But it also arises from natural trends in the course of the pandemic and, in all likelihood, expanded HIV education and prevention programs.
   
• The number of HIV-infected people living in low- and middle-income countries who are being treated with antiretroviral drugs, which help control the progression of AIDS, has increased from 700,000 in 2004 to 6.6 million at the end of 2010. This is in large part because of greater support from governments, global health agencies and nongovernmental organizations.
   
• The expansion of services to reduce transmission of HIV from mother to child has induced a decline in the number of new HIV infections among children worldwide. But with improvements in access to life-saving treatment, the number of children younger than 15 living with HIV grew from 2 million to 2.5 million from 2001 to 2009. About 88% of those children are in sub-Saharan Africa.
   
• Global financing for all HIV-related programs reached $15.9 billion in 2009.
   

Still, AIDS remains the fourth leading cause of death in low-income countries, according to the World Health Organization. Every day about 7,000 people worldwide become newly infected with HIV, and the most vulnerable people in the world continue to bear the heaviest burden of this merciless disease. Sub-Saharan Africa, home to about 67% of people infected with HIV, accounted for nearly three-quarters of all AIDS-related deaths in 2009. And if the epidemic is stabilizing somewhat in this region, it seems at the same time to be emerging with a new ferocity in other parts of the planet, including China, Indonesia, pockets of Eastern Europe and Central Asia as well as in high-income countries like Germany, Britain and Australia.

IAVI supports a comprehensive response to this crisis. This includes everything from expanding educational and behavioral HIV prevention programs to increasing access to HIV prevention tools and treatment services to addressing the underlying social, cultural and structural issues that fuel the epidemic.

Though essential and likely to remain important for the foreseeable future, traditional educational and behavioral approaches to HIV prevention will not bring the pandemic under control. And while the expansion of treatment programs will remain important, such efforts will not turn the tide of the pandemic. Governments and global health agencies would be hard pressed to reach everyone in need of antiretroviral therapy. Even today, for every person who receives life-saving antiretroviral treatment, two people are newly infected. While there will never be a single solution to HIV and AIDS, IAVI is committed to accelerating the development of a preventive AIDS vaccine and ensuring its availability for those who need it most.