Global progress fighting AIDS could be lost because prevention programmes are suffering from a lack of leadership, accountability and funding, the United Nations chief warned on Friday. Headway in tackling the epidemic has been “inspiring,” with a 42 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths since a peak in 2004, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said in a report.
The progress has caused life expectancy in countries most affected by HIV to rise sharply, he added. But those gains could be lost without more and better investment in the next five years, Ban warned. “If we accept the status quo unchanged, the epidemic will rebound in several low- and middle-income countries,” Reuters quoted the UN chief as saying in a statement.
