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Experts: HIV prevention improving

Category: HIV

A report released last month by the United Nations found that the number of people infected with HIV worldwide has remained unchanged over the last two years, underscoring the successful prevention and treatment techniques recently developed to combat the virus.

The UN study, which counted about 33 million HIV positive people around the world, suggested that infection rates may have peaked in the late 1990s, HealthDay News reports.

"I think this [trend] has come about through a number or organizations that have been trying to get drugs to be available to people in the developing world," Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease told the news source.

In addition, new treatment options were explored in a February case study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which describes the successful stem cell transplant which eliminated detectable levels of HIV from a patient's system.

The advances in HIV detection and therapy even promoted President Barack Obama to revoke a 10-year-old law prohibiting infected immigrants from entering the U.S.

According to the Associated Press, Obama said the ban was "rooted in fear" and believed that its removal would encourage HIV testing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 21 percent of Americans infected with HIV were undiagnosed in 2006.