UNITED NATIONS, CMC – The Caribbean, which ranks second behind sub-Saharan Africa for HIV/AIDS infection rates, has led the world in reducing the number of new infections between the period 2005-2011, according to a new United Nations report released here.
The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said an estimated 2.3 million adults and children were newly infected with HIV in 2012, representing a 33 per cent reduction in annual new cases compared to 2001.
In the same time period, new HIV infections among children fell 52 per cent to 260,000 in 2012, UNAIDS said, noting however that deaths from AIDS-related illnesses in the Caribbean fell by 48 per cent.