This annual update reports on developments in the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and draws on the most recent data available to give global and regional estimates of its scope and human toll. Despite promising developments in global efforts to address the AIDS epidemic, including increased access to effective treatment and prevention programmes, the number of people living with HIV continues to grow, as does the number of deaths due to AIDS. Findings for 2006 include: the total number of people living with HIV is estimated at 39.5 million, 4.3 million new cases during the year and an estimated 2.9 million deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to bear the brunt of the global epidemic with 63 per cent of all adults and children with HIV globally and with its epicentre in southern Africa. In the past two years, the number of people living with HIV increased in every region in the world, with the most striking increases in East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the number of people living with HIV in 2006 was over 21 per cent higher than in 2004.