THE UN says new infections are outpacing drug innovation and treatment Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, has opened a UN Aids conference in New York by announcing that the world is losing the fight against the HIV virus.

Drug innovation is failing to keep up with the numbers of newly infected people despite an increased international effort to combat Aids, UN officials said.

Ban Ki-moon, told world leaders at the opening of the UN debate on Aids prevention on Monday, that 2.5 million people became infected with HIV last year compared with one million who started using important antiretroviral drugs.

“Unless greater and swifter advances are made in reaching those who need essential services, the epidemic’s burden on households, communities and societies will continue to mount,” Ban Ki-moon said.

About 2.1 million people died of Aids last year and at least 33 million people worldwide have the virus, according to UN figures.

Antiretroviral drugs Dr Peter Piot, executive director of UNAids, said two million people were currently getting antiretroviral drugs in Africa.

Antiretroviral drugs have made HIV a manageable illness for many patients and prolonged their lives beyond what once seemed possible.

“We cannot separate the fight against HIV/Aids from the fight against TB” Srgjan Kerim, UN general assembly president The UN-backed global fund to fight aids, tuberculosis and malaria announced on Monday that it had helped a total of 1.75 million people get antiretroviral treatment, an increase of 59 per cent over last year.

However more than twothirds of people with HIV globally are not getting any such treatment, according to UN figures. Also people with weakened immune systems from HIV are still up to 50 times more likely to develop tuberculosis, according to UN officials. 

“We cannot separate the fight against HIV/Aids from the fight against TB,” Srgjan Kerim, the general assembly president, said.

Bill Clinton, former US president, pointed out the problems that rising oil prices will create in battling the disease.

“This oil price spike has taken away 100 per cent of the value of foreign aid and debt relief to very many countries,’’ he told the UN.

“It has dramatically increased the cost of producing food, and it has increased therefore the number of people who are at risk of these diseases.”