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Globally, the number of people newly infected with HIV as well as HIV/AIDS related deaths has been declining steadily over the past decade, according to statistics made public by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) on Wednesday.

The number of new HIV infections worldwide has dropped from 3.2 million in 2001 to 2.5 million in 2011, representing a reduction of 20 percent.

New HIV infections decreased among both adults and children. Some 2.2 million adults were newly-infected in 2011, comparing with 2.7 million a decade ago. In the same period, new infections among children dropped from 560,000 to 330,000 cases.

Meanwhile, AIDS-related deaths saw a moderate decrease from 1.9 million to 1.7 million.

UNAIDS said more than 8 million people living with HIV in middle and low-income countries were receiving antiretroviral therapy in 2011, up from 6.6 million people in 2010 and just 400,000 in 2003.

This represents 54 percent of the estimated 14.8 million people eligible for treatment.

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Key HIV data in 2011 at a glance

• 34.2 million [31.8 35.9 million] people globally living with HIV
• 2.5 million [2.2 2.8 million] people became newly infected with HIV
• 1.7 million [1.6 1.9 million] people died of AIDS-related illnesses
• More than 8 million people receiving antiretroviral therapy

Source: UN-AIDS