The world has finally reached "the beginning of the end" of the Aids pandemic that has infected and killed millions in the past three decades, according to a leading HIV campaign group.
The number of people newly infected with HIV during the last year was lower than the number of HIV-positive people who started antiretroviral treatment.
But in a report to mark World Aids Day yesterday, the ONE campaign warned that the milestone did not mean the end of Aids was nigh.
"Not all countries are there yet, and gains made can easily stall or unravel," said ONE director of global health policy Erin Hohlfelder.
UN data from last year showed there are 35million people living with HIV; 2.1million were newly infected with the virus; and some 1.5million died of Aids. By far the greatest part of the HIV/Aids burden is in sub-Saharan Africa.
Of the infected, some 13.6million people globally have access to ARVs, UNAids said in June - up from just 5million in 2010.
Hohlfelder highlighted several threats to current progress, including a $3-billion (R33-billion) shortfall in the funds needed to control HIV around the world each year.
US drugmaker AbbVie has added two HIV medicines for children to a shared patent pool.
It is the latest win for the non-profit Medicines Patent Pool, which aims to persuade leading drug companies to share rights to their products with generic manufacturers in poor countries.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
