WASHINGTON, July 18: More than eight million people — a record number in low- and middle-income countries — are now taking antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV, according to data released on Wednesday by UNAIDS.

The rise in drug coverage in 2011 was accompanied by a dramatic 31 per cent drop in deaths from AIDS-related causes in sub-Saharan Africa, the area of the world most ravaged by the disease, compared to the peak of the epidemic in 2005.

In all low- and middle-income countries, the availability of antiretroviral drugs grew by more than 20 per cent in just one year, over the latest figure of 6.6 million people covered in 2010.—AFP