On Tuesday, Josh Lozman gave us an update on progress in expanding access to life-saving treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS: at the end of 2007, 3 million people in low and middle-income countries were on antiretroviral therapy (ART), 2.1 million of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. Although these figures show that only one-third of people who need treatment are receiving it, they reflect a dramatic increase in access since 2002, when only 50,000 Africans had access to treatment.

This remarkable increase is largely thanks to the establishment of programs like PEPFAR and the Global Fund, which have dramatically scaled-up resources to fight HIV/AIDS across the world. This graph shows how over the past few years, increased funding has helped put life-saving medicine in reach of millions more people.

-Nora Coghlan