Global figures from UNAIDS show new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have dropped by hundreds of thousands in the last ten years. Meanwhile, coverage of anti-retroviral treatment has expanded worldwide. Today, 33 million are living with HIV but more than ever the findings say, they're also living with real hope.

Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS Executive Director, points to prevention programs for the fall by half a million in new HIV infections from 1999 to 2009. Young people, he says, increasingly see themselves as "actors of change" by reducing their numbers of partners, and using more condoms. The figures reflect progress in more than 50 countries, including in Africa where the epidemic is still deepest. South and Southeast Asia is the next most impacted though even countries there are seeing marked improvement.

In China, the lifting of the HIV travel ban in April this year was widely seen as a historic step towards wiping out stigma and discrimination. While others say that the chairing by Premier Wen Jiabao with African leaders of a UNAIDS session in New York in September was an example of political will in action. But a surge in infections in China amongst men who have sex with men, plus rights-based concerns still remain the biggest challenges.