Durban - Drug addicts, gay men, transgender people, sex workers, prisoners and their partners accounted for more than half of new HIV infections globally.
This is according to the UNAIDS Global Report released on Tuesday.
According to the report, in 2018, these key populations accounted for 95 percent of new infections in eastern Europe, central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
The report, which was launched in Eshowe, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, noted that less that 50 percent of key populations were reached with combination HIV prevention services.
UNAIDS Executive Director, Gunilla Carlsson, said globally around 1.7 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2018, a 16 percent decline since 2010.
She said this was mostly driven by steady progress across most of eastern and southern Africa.
"South Africa for example has made huge advances and has successfully reduced new HIV infections by more than 40 percent and AIDS-related deaths by around 40 percent since 2010," she said.
Carlsson said there was still a long way to go in eastern and southern Africa, two regions most affected by HIV.
She said there have been worrying increases in new HIV infections in eastern Europe, central Asia (29 percent), the Middle East and North Africa (10 percent) and Latin America (7 percent).
One of the keynote speakers at the launch, SA Deputy President David Mabuza, said in many ways, the country's past socio-political construct, remained an issue, not least in the social dimensions of the AIDS epidemic.
"The poor are the most affected and vulnerable to this burden of HIV, AIDS and TB," he said.
Mabuza said the fight against HIV must be taken very seriously.
"Our country has the world’s largest epidemic, with an estimated 20% of people living with HIV globally resident in South Africa, therefore we have a challenge that we must confront," he said.