NEARLY three million lives have been saved by HIV-Aids treatment, but scarce resources are being misspent and stigma is still keeping the most vulnerable from seeking help, according to a new book by researchers commissioned by the United Nations.

The failings are particularly worrying at a time when worldwide recession and donor fatigue are hurting spending on Aids, the researchers say.

Among the two dozen people involved in the research is Nelson Mandela Foundation CEO Achmat Dangor, who hosted a discussion of the research yesterday.

The book was aimed at ensuring that "the response to Aids is systematic and effective in the long term", Dangor said.

Since finishing his term as South Africa's first black president, Mandela has campaigned to raise awareness in the world's worst-afflicted country.

Now 92 and ailing, the anti-apartheid icon galvanised the Aids community in 2005 when he publicly acknowledged the disease killed his son.

The researchers were asked by the UN Aids agency three years ago to review how the world has tackled the disease. They were also asked to determine what changes need to be made to radically reduce the number of deaths by 2031, which will mark 50 years since the virus was first reported.

The researchers, known as the aids2031 Consortium, said it was "fair to ask whether the Aids effort has achieved good value for its money".

"Despite a more than 53-fold increase in Aids funding in barely over a decade, the epidemic continues to outpace the rate at which programmes are delivering," they said in the book entitled Aids: Taking a Long-Term View.

Developing drugs and getting them to the infected saved nearly three million lives between 1996 and 2008.