THE latest dispatch from the war on AIDS brings good news. At 5.25m, the number of people in poor and middle-income countries who were being treated for HIV infection at the end of 2009 was up 30% from the end of 2008. Eight countries achieved coverage of 80% or better and 21 others covered more than half of those in need. Though the new figure still represents only about a third of those who could benefit, the rate of increase is impressive. The news is doubly welcome, too, because it is now agreed that treatment, which has the effect of making people less infective, is an important way of stopping the spread of HIV as well as being desirable in its own right.

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