A new report says the global AIDS epidemic shows no signs of abating.
The annual report on AIDS and HIV infection was published jointly in London by the United Nations and the World Health Organisation.
It says that in the past year, 5m people around the world have become infected with HIV and 3m have died - the highest figure on record. One in five adults across southern Africa is now living with HIV/AIDS.
However, funding to help developing countries fight the disease has increased from $200m seven years ago to over $4.5bn.
The Government intends to address the problem during Ireland's EU presidency with a major HIV/AIDS conference in Dublin next February.
The disease now has a firm hold on most countries in sub Saharan Africa. But infection rates across the region vary widely, from less than 1% in Mauritania to almost 39% in Botswana and Swaziland.
UNAIDS says it will take time to see a decrease in infection rates and to see the positive results of the increases in funding which have occurred in the last two or three years.
But the battleground is moving away from Africa to eastern Europe.
As in Africa the statistics are frightening. In Russia, 1.5m people are infected and living with HIV. They are mostly teenagers, and they have mostly become infected through intravenous drug use.
