President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday welcomed the report by the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS(UNAIDS) on the significant progress South Africa has made in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The UNAIDS announced on Tuesday in a report “How Aids Has Changed Everything — Meeting the MDG Targets”‚ that the world had met and exceeded the AIDS targets of the Millennium Development Goal 6 and was on track to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The organisation further declared that the goal of 15-million people on life-saving HIV treatment by 2015 had been met and exceeded nine months ahead of schedule.

The report named South Africa‚ which was once counted amongst countries that had major difficulties with regards to HIV and AIDS‚ as one of the countries that had made significant strides in halting and reversing the epidemic.

The report announced that South Africa had turned around its decline in life expectancy within 10 years‚ rising from 51 years in 2005 to 61 by the end of 2014‚ on the back a massive increase in access to antiretroviral therapy.

Zuma said government was pleased with the report which had proven that South Africa had prioritised the fight against HIV/AIDS epidemic including the treatment of the disease and Tuberculosis in its healthcare policies.

“As government we welcome the report by the UNAIDS which demonstrate that our aggressive HIV/AIDS treatment campaign‚ which is the biggest in the world‚ has yielded remarkable results in preventing AIDS related deaths and ultimately increasing life expectancy as required by Millennium Development Goal 6.

The achievements highlighted in the UN report include the significant amount of domestic funding that South Africa had provided for the AIDS response‚ with South Africa being one of the few countries that funds the majority of its response with $1.6-billion in 2014.

South Africa is listed in the group of countries that reduced the number of new HIV infections by at least 20%‚ and of the 15-million people globally on HIV treatment‚ more than 3.4-million are in South Africa.

The report further announced that deaths associated with HIV and AIDS in South Africa had significantly declined by 58% since 2010.

It also declared that AIDS deaths in children under 5 years of age had declined from 25‚000 in 2000 to 3‚800 in 2014.

The UN also noted some of the global challenges that the world‚ including South Africa‚ still had to deal with to end AIDS by 2030. These include the high number of new infections in young women‚ high levels of intimate partner violence as well as high rates of multiple sexual partnerships. According to the report‚ these issues were related to power inequality.

“On behalf government and all South Africans we gratefully applaud work of the South African National Aids Council‚ our health workers‚ home and community based healthcare givers and all our health care and medical personnel. More importantly we thank all South Africans for their contribution in the fight against HIV/AIDS‚’’ said Zuma.

The president‚ however‚ cautioned: “... these results as announced in the report should not blind us‚ we have not yet reached our target where South Africa would be a HIV/AIDS free country by 2030. We should not be complacent. The fight against HIV and AIDS continues‚ and also the fight against the stigma and the support for all infected and affected by the virus should continue.”