'One of the key findings of the new report is that the availability of treatment increases the number of people who access key prevention services, such as testing and counseling.'

However, access to combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) continues to fall short of the growing need, and overall progress is unlikely to be fast enough to reach the "3 by 5" target set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) of treating 3 million people by the end of 2005, says the report.

Challenges Are Enormous

According to the report by WHO and UNAIDS, in sub-Saharan Africa, the region most severely affected by HIV, approximately 500,000 people are currently receiving ART -- more than triple the number of people on ART in June 2004, and nearly double the number from just six months ago.

Similarly, in Asia -- the second most affected region -- the number of people with access to ART has tripled since June 2004 to approximately 155,000 today. More than 50 percent of this increase occurred in the first six months of this year.

"The movement to expand HIV treatment access is making substantial progress," WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook said in a statement.

"This is the first time that complex therapy for a chronic condition has been introduced at anything approaching this scale in the developing world. The challenges in providing sustainable care in resource-poor settings are enormous, as we expected them to be. But every day demonstrates that this type of care can and must be provided," he added.

3 x 5 Target

"It is imperative that we continue to speed up access to life-saving HIV treatment, not only as a means of treating the millions in need today, but also as a tool to help prevent millions of additional infections," said UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot.

"One of the key findings of the new report is that the availability of treatment increases the number of people who access key prevention services, such as testing and counseling," said Piot.

The "3 by 5" target, endorsed by all 192 WHO member states, was intended as an interim step toward the goal of universal access to HIV treatment for those who need it.

Wednesday's report emphasizes that while in political, financial, and technical arenas, support for the ART scale-up has in some cases met or exceeded expectations, in other arenas the prerequisites of a successful response are still not fully in place.