PlusNews/IRIN examines what the global adult mortality data, released Friday in the journal Lancet, suggests about HIV/AIDS. According to the news service, the study, based on an analysis of adult mortality rates between 1970 and 2010 in 187 countries, revealed: “HIV was key to reversing the worldwide decline in mortality from 1970 to 1990. Even though worldwide mortality is still about 26 percent lower than it was 40 years ago, there are regional imbalances. In sub-Saharan Africa, hard hit by HIV, mortality is at levels not seen in developed countries such as Sweden since the 1700s.”

Though the data reflected the impact of HIV/AIDS on populations, study co-author Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said the study also captured “[a]n emerging public health success story … the scale-up of antiretroviral [ARV] therapies in Africa, [which] seems to be one of the drivers in the declines in mortality that we have seen in many countries there since 2005.”

Murray also emphasized the need for countries to improve their ability to accurately track disease outcomes among their adult populations (4/30).