According to a report released by the UN’s HIV/Aids programme UNAids, global figures of new Aids infections has decreased. Worldwide there were an estimated 2.6m new infections in 2009, which is down from about 3.3m at the peak of the Aids pandemic in 1999.
"It is a slow, steady decrease," said the deputy executive director of UNAids, Paul De Lay.
The 370 000 babies a year born with Aids is also down from 500 000 a year at the beginning of the decade and the UN report said eradicating mother-to-baby transmission of Aids by 2015 is achievable.
World Health Organisation director general Margaret Chan agreed with this as she said "we have strong evidence that elimination of mother-to-child transmission is achievable".
Already wealthier countries in Europe and North America have brought these figures way down through aggressive screening and prevention programmes.
Africa is still the hardest hit in this regard though, with 1 000 babies a day infected with HIV/Aids through mother-to-child transmission.
Anthony Lake, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) called the figure "outrageous" and demanded greater efforts for "the hardest hit communities".
Paul De Lay urged caution ahead of the release of these figures reflecting a drop in the number of global infections, saying that sexual behavior in richer nations has become careless. This has led to infection rates becoming three times higher in countries like Britain, Germany and the United States as compared to figures in the early 2000’s. He also highlighted an increase of the spread of Aids in Eastern Europe and Central Asia linked to drug use.
De Lay said: "There seem to be secondary and tertiary waves of the epidemic, particularly the sexually transmitted side.
"You have a young people who don't know enough about Aids, there is less of a fear factor about it.