Kofi Annan, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, has said that the fight against AIDS may be the great challenge of our generation. The disease is spreading faster than ever, outstripping efforts to contain it, Annan told a conference in New York. He added that only 12% of AIDS patients in underdeveloped countries are getting anti-retroviral drugs. The meeting, which was participated by delegates from 120 countries, was organized to assess the progress on the UN's fight against the fatal disease. The UN had fixed 2015 as the target date for halting the spread of the HIV virus. Annan, however, said that better leadership and funding was needed to achieve that.