Anti-retroviral treatment not keeping pace with new infection: UN report

A report from the United Nations says more HIV-positive people are getting anti-retroviral treatment, but the supply of the drugs is not keeping pace with the rate of new infections.

The idea of getting anti-viral drugs to 3 million people by the end of 2005 failed.

However the report says this initiative, which became known as 'three by five', did jump start the push for treatment, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where the AIDS epidemic is most severe.

Reductions in the price of key drugs have helped the expansion, though experts warn that the increasingly common combination of HIV with tuberculosis and particularly drug resistant strains represents a critical threat.

The director of the World Health Organisation's HIV-AIDS program, Doctor Kevin De Cock, says while 1 million new patients get treatment each year, 2.5 million are infected with the virus.

He says there is still a lot of work to be done to prevent infections.

"I think remarkable things have been achieved ... this is a very complicated infection," he said.