According to a new report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the global effort to combat HIV has achieved dramatic success during the past decade, with significant decreases in new HIV cases and AIDS-related deaths. Such achievement has come even as global donor funding for combating HIV has remained essentially flat since the international financial crisis hit in 2008.

New HIV infections in both adults and children have dropped by a third since 2001, to an estimated 2.3 million in 2012. The decline among children alone has been more dramatic: The 260,000 new infections in 2012 represent a 52 percent drop since 2001. Also, after hitting a peak in 2005, AIDS-related deaths have fallen 30 percent along with a massive global push to expand access to antiretrovirals (ARVs).

Nearly 10 million people with HIV in low- and middle-income countries were taking ARVs by the end of 2012. This figure represents a 20 percent hike since the previous year and puts the effort closer to the 2015 target of getting 15 million people on treatment, a goal the U.N. set in 2011.

In addition, tuberculosis (TB)-related deaths in people with HIV have dropped by 36 percent since 2004.

The New York Times reports that donor countries spent about $7.9 billion on HIV in poor and middle-income nations last year. While spending increased dramatically between 2002 and 2008, thanks to the establishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis as well as the Bush administrations President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), current global expenditures remain about equivalent to those of 2008.

However, domestic spending has increased during the past few years and made up 53 percent of global HIV expenditures in 2012. Total 2012 global spending on the disease was an estimated $18.9 billion, with the United States putting in nearly 64 percent of the funds.

To read the U.N. release on the rate reductions, click here.

To read the Times story on global expenditures, click here.

To read the Kaiser Family Foundation report on global expenditures, click here.

To read a UNAIDS/Kaiser release on the report, click here.