Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 12/2011

Achieving an AIDS Transition: Preventing Infections to Sustain Treatment

Mead Over

November 2011

Center for Global Development

Abstract

This brief summarizes the recommendations in Mead Over's book, Achieving an AIDS Transition, for focused policies and well-designed incentives to finally bring the AIDS epidemic under control. An unprecedented surge in donor support for HIV/AIDS treatment over the last decade has lengthened and improved the lives of millions of people living with HIV/AIDS. But because the rate of new infections outpaces the rate of AIDS-related deaths, the number of people living with AIDS—and therefore the number of people needing treatment—is growing faster than the funding needed to treat them. In 2009, about 1.8 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses while about 2.6 million were newly infected with HIV, increasing the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS by more than three-quarters of a million.