Enormous progress has been made in tackling the global HIV epidemics over the past two decades. The number of people dying from HIV-related causes has fallen by 51% since 2010; and the number of annual new infections has fallen from 2.1 million new infections in 2010 to 1.3 million in 2023 (a drop of 39%).
This is the impact of the roll out of massive global programmes for prevention and treatment in this period. In 2003, around 400,000 people living in low and middle-income countries were able to access the life-saving anti-retroviral therapy drugs to manage the virus. Today it stands at more than 25 million people.
A large part of this success is due to the role of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar), established by George W. Bush in 2003. Pepfar now accounts for around 70% of the total funding for the global response to HIV. And it has been a rare example of successful bipartisan support within the US.
