New Delhi, Jun 3 (IANS): Nearly $22 billion investment is needed to bring down new HIV/AIDS infections globally by 2015, said a UNAIDS report released Friday.

"A 2011 investment framework proposed by UNAIDS and partners found that an investment of at least $22 billion is needed by the year 2015, $six billion more than is available today," according to a new report 'AIDS at 30: Nations at the crossroads'.

"When these investments are directed towards a set of priority programmes that are based on a country's epidemic type, the impact is greatest," it added.

It is estimated that the return on such an investment would be 12 million new HIV infections averted and 7.4 million AIDS related deaths averted by the year 2020, it said.

"The number of new infections would decline from about 2.5 million in 2009 to about one million in 2015," the report added.

Investments in the HIV response in low-and middle-income countries rose nearly 10-fold between 2001 and 2009, from $1.6 billion to $15.9 billion.

However, in 2010, international resources for HIV declined mainly due to global meltdown.

"Many low-income countries remain heavily dependent on external financing," the report added.

In 56 countries, international donors account for at least 70 percent of HIV resources.

"I am worried that international investments are falling at a time when the AIDS response is delivering results for people," said Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS executive director. "If we do not invest now, we will have to pay several times more in the future."

"We are at a turning point in the AIDS response. The goal towards achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support must become a reality by 2015," the report said.

The report said that an estimated 34 million people are living with HIV and nearly 30 million people have died of AIDS-related causes globally since the first case of AIDS was reported 30 years ago.

About 6.6 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy in low-and middle-income countries at the end of 2010, a nearly 22-fold increase since 2001, it said.