Global AIDS Update 2016, UNAIDS (2016)

This report combines data from 160 countries to analyze the progress made and progress needed to meet UNAIDS’ goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. In terms of progress, in the last two years the number of people living with HIV on antiretroviral treatment has increased by a third, to 17 million people. Some of the greatest gains in treatment have occurred in the world’s most affected region, eastern and southern Africa.  Nonetheless, in 2015 there were approximately 2.1 million new HIV infections worldwide, adding up to a total of 36.7 million people living with HIV. Among the greatest challenges to meeting the UNAIDS goals are ignorance and misunderstanding. In particular, UNAIDS highlights the effects of stigma, discrimination, and criminalization of people living with HIV. In 2016, 72 countries had laws criminalizing HIV. The United States is not included among that group, and the U.S. Department of Justice has, in fact, called for modernizing HIV criminal laws. Nevertheless, more than thirty states continue to include statutes criminalizing HIV.