UNAIDS welcomes the announcement by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, to more than double Australia’s funding for AIDS from AUS$ 250 million (US$ 180 million) to AUS$600 million (US$ 435 million) by 2010. The announcement was made in tandem with the appointment of Australia’s first Special Representative on HIV/AIDS.

Total global spending on AIDS has increased from US$1.2 billion in 2000 to an estimated US$6 billion this year – a five-fold increase – according to a new UNAIDS report released today. Without dramatic increases, there is still an expected shortfall of US$6 billion in 2005, according to UNAIDS. “Unless more resources are directed toward the global response, the gap between the need and available resources will grow significantly in coming years,” said Dr Paul De Lay, Director of Evaluation of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Today the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) signed an agreement to tackle HIV among the uniformed services with Thailand’s Minister of Defence, General Chetta Thanajaro and the Minister of Public Health, Mrs. Sudarat Keyuraphan. Focusing on young men and women, all parties will work together to reduce the impact of HIV and increase prevention efforts.

AIDS activists from around the world, representing different movements, today called for concerted action aimed at ramping up HIV/AIDS health care services in low and middle-income countries.

Nationwide programmes to increase condom use in commercial sex, help drug injectors to use clean needles and cut risky sex between men are needed to reverse a growing HIV epidemic in Asia, according to leading scientists. In a report released ahead of the 15th International AIDS Conference on Sunday, the Monitoring the AIDS Pandemic (MAP) Network said that HIV was spreading rapidly in several Asian countries.

Countries in Asia and the Pacific region must urgently adopt comprehensive responses to HIV in order to avert a catastrophic increase in infections and drastic economic consequences, according to a new report released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

A new study by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), ‘Analysis of aid in support of HIV/AIDS control, 2000-2002’, presents the first comprehensive overview of aid allocations to AIDS activities by donor and recipient countries. It is being released in advance of the XV International AIDS conference, to be held in Bangkok 11-16 July 2004.

UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, today welcomes the announcement made by Hilary Benn, UK International Development Secretary, of increased funding to UNAIDS and to UNFPA to help tackle the global AIDS epidemic and improve sexual and reproductive health for women and young people in developing countries.

UNAIDS warned that the number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has risen in every region of the world and last year five million people became newly infected with HIV -- more people than any previous year. These findings are contained in the 2004 UNAIDS Report of the global AIDS epidemic, released today in advance of the XV International AIDS Conference, to be held in Bangkok from 11-16 July 2004. The new report represents the most accurate picture of AIDS to date due to the more comprehensive country surveillance data and improved methods for estimating HIV rates.

Geneva, 25 June 2004 – Today the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is pleased to announce that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has joined UNAIDS as the tenth Cosponsor. Together with the nine existing Cosponsors, UNHCR will help broaden and strengthen the UN’s response to the global AIDS epidemic.