If new infections with HIV in adults and children declined by 40% after peaking in 1997, new infections in adults are stationary and have failed to decrease for at least five years, according to the new UNAIDS report presented in Geneva.
The geographic regions most affected by this increase in contamination are Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which show an increase of 57% between 2010 and 2015.
After years of steady decline, UNAIDS has found that new infections among adults in the Caribbean increased by 9% annually between 2010 and 2015 and by 4% in the Middle East and North Africa.
“This situation scares me and we must act quickly,” said Michel Sidibé, director of UNAIDS, during a press conference in Geneva. “Otherwise, the epidemic could once again cause enormous human and economic losses.”
“We have a five-year window of opportunity. If we miss it, we will see a rebound in the epidemic and we will not be able to put an end to it by 2030 ”, underlined Mr. Sidibé.
The AIDS epidemic: figures from the past 35 years
In 35 years, 35 million people have died from diseases related to AIDS and an estimated 78 million people have been infected with the virus.
In 2014, the populations most affected by this pathology are “homosexuals, men who have sex with other men, sex workers and their clients, transgender people, those who inject drugs and prisoners, which accounted for 35% of new infections with HIV worldwide “. The report states that men who have sex with men as well as people who use drugs are 24 times more likely to be affected by the disease. HIV than the general population, while sex workers 10 times. In addition, transgender people are 49 times more likely to be living with the virus, and in prisoners five times, than the general population.
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