Nearly 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV

The world is doing better than it was to combat AIDS but is still not doing enough, says the 2006 report on the global epidemic by UNAIDS, the joint United Nations project on HIV and AIDS.

The report comes 25 years after the disease, which UNAIDS describes as “among the greatest development challenges in human history,” was first recognised (MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1981;30: 250-2).

It was presented at a press conference in New York on Tuesday, the day before the opening of the UNAIDS 2006 high level meeting on AIDS. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, Ann Veneman, executive director of Unicef, and Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the UN Population Fund, spoke at the press conference. They said that 126 countries had …