A report of the United Nations issued in advance of the 17th International AIDS Conference, which begins this weekend in Mexico City, reveals that the number of people dying from AIDS has decreased since its peak in the late 1990s partly because of increasing access to treatment.

“In a surprisingly short period of time, there has been a tripling of prevention efforts in some countries,” Paul De Lay, director of evaluation for UNAIDS, said.

More exactly, the report read that the number of AIDS deaths worldwide dropped 10 percent to 2 million in 2007, as did the number of new infections in children from 410,000 to 370,000 from 2005 to 2007. There are currently an estimated 33 million people living with HIV worldwide. Young adults who account for almost half of new infections in adults are becoming more aware of how to avoid AIDS, the report says.

This success was partly due to the Bush administration’s program called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to deliver drugs and preventive measures to people in countries highly affected by HIV. The program has pent about $19 billion overseas in the past five years.

“A six-fold increase in financing for HIV programs in low- and middle-income countries (from) 2001-2007 is beginning to bear fruit, as gains in lowering the number of AIDS deaths and preventing new infections are apparent in many countries,” the report read. However, the report adds that progress remains uneven and the epidemic’s future is still uncertain.

However promising the situation is looking overseas, a 55-page new report by the Black AIDS Institute dubbed “Left Behind! Black America: A neglected Priority in the Global AIDS Epidemic” provides startling evidence that there is a growing epidemic among African Americans within the US’ borders.

The report makes a parallel between African American HIV rates in Detroit, New Orleans and Washington D.C. and countries such as South Africa, Haiti and Tanzania and draws a worrisome conclusion, namely: if Black America existed outside the borders of the US, it would be a prime candidate for US aid in the fight with AIDS. More exactly, their nation would rank 16th in people living with HIV, 105th in life expectancy and 88th in infant mortality worldwide, according to the report.

“When we give aid to foreign countries, we demand that they have a national AIDS plan, but we don’t have a plan in the United States. Were Black America a separate country, it would elicit major concern and extensive assistance from the US government. Instead, the national response to aids among Black Americans has been lethargic and often neglectful,” Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, said criticizing the Bush administration’s program dealing with AIDS.

More than half a million African Americans are HIV-positive, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s estimates, their number being more numerous than in seven of the 15 “target countries” in the Bush administration’s global AIDS initiative.

Also, they are eight times more likely than white Americans to contract HIV and they fare more poorly infected due to late diagnoses and lack of health services. One more thing: although AIDS treatment offers people with quality health care a chance to a nearly-normal life, a previous study found that HIV-positive blacks are 2.5 more likely to die than HIV-positive whites.

In these conditions, Wilson is asking the Bush administration to head part of its efforts and money towards African Americans within the borders of the US.