The 17th International Aids Conference wrapped up Friday in Mexico City with wide agreement to boost education on the disease and balance efforts for its prevention and treatment.

"The conference has been very successful from the beginning," said President of the International Aids Society (IAS) Pedro Cahn.

For the first time, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean agreed to promote sex education at schools across the region as a collective policy, Cahn said.

"We finished very strengthened in the fight against AIDS," although there is still a lot of work to do, Cahn said.

We have agreed to combine treatment with prevention, Cahn said, adding that they are supplementary elements in fighting the disease.

The Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the terminal phase for a person infected with HIV.

There are 33 million people infected with HIV worldwide, two thirds of them living in Africa, according to UN statistics. A total of 25 million have died of AIDS since 1981.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, HIV cases have reached 1.83 million so far.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2008)