The good news

In Africa prevention, care and treatment programs are starting to slow infection rates. Education campaigns focus on delayed sex, increased condom use, empowerment of girls and women and prebirth care. These are yielding encouraging results as infection rates have slowed and awareness has increased.

Uganda and Senegal are great examples of what can happen when an open attitude and active de-stigmatization of HIV/AIDS occurs at the highest levels of government, and when pro-active programs are created to meet the challenge.

Cambodia and Thailand show success in addressing behavioral change through strong prevention programs and political commitment, drastically cutting infection rates. Community networks of support, faith-based responses, open discussion in schools, condom use and counseling programs have been credited. India is actively taking prevention and education measures, and China is slowly following suit.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, rates overall are still relatively low, though expected to rise without prevention and education measures. Of the 1.5 million living with HIV/AIDS, almost one-third are in the Caribbean; Haiti is the worst-affected country, with 6% of its population infected.

In North America, western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the introduction of ARV treatments in the mid-1990's has slowed deaths and increased survival rates dramatically. Treatment availability can induce complacency about prevention, so there has been a rise in infection rates after years of reductions, with a corresponding call for further prevention and education measures.