The announcement in a new UNAIDS report entitled:``Global AIDS update 2016'', comes as world leaders prepared to gather for the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS in New York from June 8 to June 10.
The report said that more gradual declines were also achieved in the Asia and Pacific region and Western and Central Africa.
The UN agency said that rates of new adult HIV infections were relatively stable in Latin America and the Caribbean, Western and Central Europe, North America, the Middle East and North Africa.
However, it said that the annual number of new HIV infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia increased by 57 per cent.
The report also showed that there were about 40, 000 fewer adult HIV infections in the region in 2015 than in 2010.
Globally, it said in 2015, an estimated 17 million people had accessed life-saving anti-retroviral medicines.
According to UNAIDS, an additional two million people have gained access to
anti-retroviral medicines this year.
The Un agency said that the extraordinary scale-up of anti-retroviral treatment since 2010 by many of the world’s most affected countries had reduced AIDS-related deaths from 1.5 million in 2010 to 1.1 million in 2015.
It said that as more countries adopted new guidelines from the World Health Organisation to treat everyone diagnosed with HIV immediately, public health benefits were being realised for individuals and for wider society.
It stated that global coverage of antiretroviral therapy reached 46 per cent at the end of 2015.
According to the report, gains are greatest in the world’s most affected region, Eastern and Southern Africa, where coverage increased from 24 per cent in 2010 to 54 per cent in 2015, reaching a total of 10.3 million people.
In South Africa, it added 3.4 million people had access to treatment, followed by Kenya with nearly 900, 000.
It showed that Botswana, Eritrea, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe all increased treatment coverage by more than 25 per cent points between 2010 and 2015.
The UNAIDS Fast-Track approach to treatment, the agency said was proven to work in countries adopting it.
The UN said that momentum must continue to achieve the UNAIDS ``90–90–90'' treatment target by 2020.
The ``90–90–90' treatment meant that 90 per cent of people living with HIV knew their status, 90 per cent others who knew their HIV-positive status were accessing treatment and 90 per cent more on treatment had suppressed viral loads.
Reaching the 2020 treatment target, the UN agency said it would set the world on course to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The report showed that declines in new HIV infections among adults had slowed alarmingly in recent years, with the estimated annual number of new infections among adults remaining nearly static at about 1.9 million.
The UN agency explained that the global figure masked striking regional disparities that must be addressed to achieve the reductions required to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
It showed that the largest reduction in new adult infections occurred in Eastern and Southern Africa.
There were about 40, 000 fewer adult HIV infections in the region in 2015 than in 2010, a four per cent decline.
In the report, UNAIDS urged countries to continue to scale up HIV prevention efforts, while continuing to roll out treatment since many people were still not being reached.
UNAIDS, however, said that young people and adolescents, especially young women and girls, were still being left behind in the AIDS response.
It stated that adolescent girls and young women 15–24 years old were at higher risk of HIV infection globally.
``This is accounting for 20 per cent of new HIV infections among adults globally in 2015, in spite of accounting for just 11 per cent of the adult population,’’ it said.
In sub-Saharan Africa, it added that adolescent girls and young women accounted for 25 per cent new HIV infections among adults.
``Harmful gender norms and inequalities, obstacles to education and sexual and reproductive health services, poverty, food insecurity and violence are the key drivers of this increased vulnerability,’’it said.
The report urged countries to work closely with partners, particularly Civil Society Organsations, communities and people living with HIV to ensure that they knew where their epidemics were concentrated.
It also urged them to have the right services in the right places.
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