U.N. says millions still lack access to AIDS drugs

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - More than half of the 9.5 million people who need AIDS drugs cannot get them and 33 million people across the world are still infected with the virus that causes it, a United Nations report said on Wednesday.

Access to drugs, counseling and testing for AIDS has increased, but there were still 2.7 million new infections in 2007 and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS remains a major challenge for global health, it said.

Teguest Guerma, an AIDS director at the Geneva-based World Health Organization, noted some progress -- particularly in access to HIV testing and counseling, and getting HIV drugs to pregnant women and those in low- and middle-income countries.

But she said an internationally agreed goal of achieving universal access to treatment by 2010 was unlikely to be hit and required more concentrated effort.

"We're moving toward universal access, but we're not there yet," she said in a telephone interview. "We need to sustain the effort and commitment we have now to move forward."

Since the AIDS pandemic started in the early 1980s, more than 25 million people have died from the virus. There is no cure, but a cocktail of drugs known as highly active antiretroviral therapy can help keep it under control.

According to the UNAIDS report, groups at high risk of infection, including men who have sex with men, sex workers, drug users and prisoners, still have limited access to HIV testing and counseling services.

As a result, only 40 percent of all people estimated to have AIDS are aware that they are infected.