Skip to main content
< All (RED)itorial Posts

INC(RED)IBLE NEWS: 15 Million People on HIV Treatment

July 14, 2015
HIV AIDS

Today, the world is celebrating an incredible milestone in the AIDS fight. 15 million people living with HIV are now on life-saving treatment — a goal met 9 months ahead of schedule — according to a new UNAIDS report.

This milestone was deemed impossible when the MDGs were set in 2000. Every day, 8,500 people were becoming newly infected with HIV and 4,300 people were dying of AIDS-related illnesses. If you had HIV, where you lived determined whether you lived. Life-saving medicine was only available to a few. Millions died—needlessly. Today the world was a very different place. Today’s new UNAIDS report shows how far we’ve come since 2000: HIV infections have fallen by 35% and AIDS-related deaths by 41%. 30 million infections and nearly 8 million AIDS-related deaths have been averted – making the HIV global response one of the best investments in global health and development.

This is incredible progress. But it’s not enough. Today 36.9 million people are living with HIV/AIDS — a treatable and preventable disease. And 2 million people, including 220,000 children, became newly infected last year alone. If an HIV positive mom has access to treatment, she can stop the virus from passing to her child. We can’t stop now.

If we act now, we can ensure that no child is born with HIV, and that their moms stay healthy too. Join (RED) and together we can deliver the first AIDS FREE GENERATION in over 30 years.