In 2018, 770,000 people died of AIDS worldwide, a third less than in 2010. Despite everything, the fight against HIV is not progressing fast enough, UNAIDS warned on Tuesday.
“End the AIDS epidemic by 2030”. This is the will of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS, which publishes this Tuesday, July 16 an annual report quite encouraging but nevertheless very contrasting. In 2018, 770,000 people worldwide died of HIV-related illnesses compared to 800,000 the previous year. Since 2010, this mortality has decreased by 33%. Despite everything, the fight against AIDS is not progressing fast enough and suffers from great regional disparities, the program worries.
Today more than three HIV positive out of five, or 23.3 million out of 37.9, are on antiretroviral treatment, which block the transmission of AIDS when taken correctly. This is about ten times more than in the mid-2000s and the highest proportion since the first cases appeared in the 1980s.
In addition, about 82% of HIV-positive pregnant women now have access to drugs, an increase of more than 90% since 2010, which has resulted in a 41% reduction in new infections among children. Despite everything, overall, the number of new infections (1.7 million) may have decreased by 16% compared to 2010, it does not differ from 2017.
Very significant progress in Southern and Eastern Africa
In detail, there are strong disparities in the four corners of the world. Overall, very significant progress has been made in southern and eastern Africa, an area very affected by the disease since it is there that more than half of the world’s population living with AIDS lives. It is therefore in this region that the number of deaths from HIV has fallen the most and that patients have been able to have better access to treatment.
However, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the number of new infections has increased by 29% since 2010 while the number of deaths from the disease has increased by 5%. During this period, it also climbed 9% in the Middle East and North Africa.
Regarding stigma, progress has been made in many countries, notes UNAIDS according to which “discriminatory attitudes towards HIV-positive people remain very prevalent”. Therefore, “there is an urgent need to address the structural factors that create inequities and barriers to HIV prevention and treatment, including social norms and laws that are harmful to people with HIV, stigma, discrimination and gender-based violence,” the program notes.
UNAIDS would like seven billion dollars more
Thus, the fight is still far from over, he warns, also worrying about a drop in funding. Because in 2018, $19 billion was spent on AIDS programs in low- and middle-income countries. This is one billion less than the previous year and much less than what UNAIDS recommends for 2020 (26.2).
“We urgently need stronger political leadership to end AIDS,” said Acting Executive Director Gunilla Carlsson. And to conclude: “It is necessary to make adequate and judicious investments, and to look at what has worked in the countries. We can end AIDS by focusing on people, not on diseases, by developing roadmaps for populations and regions left behind and adopting a human rights-based approach to reach those most affected by HIV.”
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