Washington, D.C. ? The U.S. global AIDS initiative has provided therapy and brought testing and counseling to millions around the world. Now the challenge is to move from emergency to sustained efforts, the Institute of Medicine said Friday.

Launched three years ago, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is active in 120 countries, with a concentrated focus on 15, where it seeks to have an effect at the national level, the institute said.

In those focus countries, 800,000 people have received AIDS drugs through the program, another 19 million received testing and counseling, and therapy was able to block transmission of the disease from mother to infant in an estimated 100,000 cases, the report said.

Yet, worldwide, AIDS caused the deaths of almost 3 million people last year alone, while more than 4 million others became infected.