UNAIDS/WHO plan to publish an AIDS Epidemic Update in 2009 that will report on 2008 estimates, incorporating the 2008 programme coverage data.

For more than a decade, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), have produced a detailed report titled “AIDS Epidemic Update” prior to World AIDS Day that provided the most recent epidemiological figures and trends for the current year.

However the estimates of new HIV infections, deaths due to AIDS, and number of people living with HIV are now more and more affected by information coming from HIV services including HIV treatment coverage and prevention of mother to child transmission programmes. This information is usually made available after the year ends, meaning that it is no longer possible to provide credible estimates of a current year.

So this year it has been decided not to publish a new “AIDS Epidemic Update” in 2008. Instead UNAIDS/WHO plan to publish an AIDS Epidemic Update in 2009 that will report on 2008 estimates, incorporating the 2008 programme coverage data.

This change in reporting cycle was endorsed by leading epidemiologists during the International Consultation on Epidemiological Estimates organised by UNAIDS in November 2007.

For epidemiological information about the AIDS epidemic, please refer to UNAIDS’ Report on the global AIDS epidemic 2008.