Leading AIDS experts speaking at an international conference in Sydney, Australia say the world is on the brink of beating the deadly virus.
The fourth International AIDS Society Conference on HIV is being attended by more than 133 countries and some of the world's leading AIDS researchers who say celebrations are not in order as some of the advances in HIV treatments are still not universally accessible.
They say many living with the disease do not have access to the best drugs and because of this 3 million people are dying every year from a disease which is treatable.
According to leading international AIDS researchers attending the conference, the world will not be able to celebrate the tremendous advances in HIV treatments until universal drug access is made available for all who are living with the disease.
The president of the International AIDS Society, Pedro Cahn, says 11,000 people are still contracting HIV/AIDS every day despite the fact that science has the tools to prevent and treat HIV effectively.
He says, that the science has not been translated into practice, is a shameful failure on the part of the global community.
Advancements in AIDS treatments have ensured that people with the disease now live longer, fuller lives and in 2006 as many as 2 million people in developing countries living with HIV were receiving anti retroviral drugs to manage their disease, a rise of over 50% from the previous year.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says of the estimated 60 million infections that will occur by 2015 half of them are expected to be preventable with already known and proven methods.
Dr. Fauci believes society will judge the success of the extraordinary accomplishments not by the last 26 years but rather by the next 20-26 years; he says a successful effort cannot be sustained without prevention.
Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, says 2.2 million lives had been saved in a recent global increase in drug therapy in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Russia and eastern Europe.