HIV infection rates have dropped by a THIRD since 2001 and halved among children thanks to better access to medicine

                 
The number of new HIV infections has plummeted by a third since 2001 and more than halved among children. UNAIDS executive director, Michel Sidibe (pictured), has put this down to the increasing availability of antiretroviral drugs

The number of new HIV infections has plummeted by a third since 2001 and more than halved among children, the United Nations has said.

Globally, 2.3 million people contracted the AIDS virus last year - down 33 per cent from 2001, while 260,000 children became infected - 52 per cent less than in 2001.

‘The annual number of new HIV infections continues to decline with especially sharp reductions in the number of children newly infected with HIV,’ said UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.

Hailing progress in distributing antiretroviral drugs that prevent the transmission of the virus from pregnant women to their unborn children, the UN body said it may be possible to slash new infections among children by 90 per cent in the next two years.

In its annual report on the state of the global pandemic, the agency said the drugs had prevented more than 670,000 children contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes AIDS between 2009 and 2012 alone.

In sub-Saharan Africa - home to 90 per cent of the world's 3.3 million infected children - the decline was particularly striking.

In Ghana, for instance, 90 per cent of pregnant, HIV-positive women had access to antiretroviral treatment last year, up from just 32 per cent three years earlier.

As a result, the likelihood of women in the country infecting their unborn children dropped from 31 per cent in 2009 to just nine per cent last year, said UNAIDS.

Increased access to the drug ‘cocktail’ which curtails HIV transmission but does not cure it, has helped reduce the number of AIDS-related deaths among all age groups by 30 per cent since they peaked in 2005, the report said.