Towards a New Architecture of Global Governance for Responding to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic

Abstract

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus/ Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) affects millions of people in all regions of the world. According to the latest estimates by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), over 40 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV and AIDS, and about 25 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses since the disease was first diagnosed a quarter of a century ago (UNAIDS/WHO, 2005). In 2005 alone, about 5 million people were newly infected with HIV and, despite improved access to treatment and care, AIDS claimed over 3 million lives in that year. The vast majority of HIV/AIDS infections and deaths have been in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where some of the worst-affected countries with national adult HIV prevalence rates as high as 30–40 per cent are to be found, but HIV/AIDS is now a global phenomenon.