A staggering nine million people are still awaiting HIV treatment, yet the 22 billion dollars the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says is needed to give them access to medicine and care has far from materialised.
Six billion dollars is needed to close the gap and bring care to those nine million, whose treatment, in addition to the six million already being treated, according to UNAIDS, would prevent 12 million new infections and 7.4 million deaths by 2020.
The treatment target of 15 million people by 2015 was finalised and adopted by member states in a declaration Friday afternoon, at the close of this week's High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS at the United Nations.
