Recording of treatments | Three out of five seropos …

Nearly three out of every five AIDS carriers in the world have access to antiretroviral therapy, a record proportion, according to the UNAIDS annual report, which warns that lack of funding fears a resurgence of HIV / AIDS. Epidemic

In 2017, 21.7 million people had access (compared to 19.4 million in 2016), out of a total of 36.9 million people infected (against 36.3 million), according to the published report this Wednesday by the United Nations agency responsible for the fight against the disease. Last year, 940,000 people worldwide died of AIDS-related illnesses (990,000 in 2016), according to figures previously published at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam (July 23-27) [19659003]. the worst year of the epidemic, 1.9 million deaths were related to the disease, and only two million out of a total of 30 million patients had access to treatment.

So, "no one would have thought we were going to put 22 C is a dream," said Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, at a conference of press in Paris

. But "unfortunately, we are a little victims of these results," said Sidibé, deploring a "crisis of prevention." "It generates a complacency that compromises these achievements.This is not the moment to lower the guard," he said.

And to maintain this positive momentum, "there is $ 7 billion a year" in funding, Mr Sidibé told AFP. Last year, 20,600 million euros ($ 24,000 million) were allocated to AIDS programs in low- and middle-income countries, funded by them by 56%, according to the report. But under the administration of Donald Trump, the United States, historically the largest contributor to the fight against AIDS, plans to reduce its financial participation.

"The fear is that dwindling contributions from international donors will lead to a setback in domestic investment in affected countries," according to Sidibé. And it is that "at least 44 countries depend on 75% of international aid to fight the epidemic".

"If we do not have these resources, there is a significant risk of an epidemic, with a risk of increased resistance and mortality," warned Mr Sidibé. This undermines the UN target for 2020: 90% of people living with HIV are aware of their condition, 90% of them are under treatment and 90% of them are living with HIV [19659003"Wemustreachthe30millionpatientstreatedin2020"saidtheMalianbossofUNAIDSIn201718millionnewinfectionswererecordedastablefigurecomparedtopreviousyearsTheseoverallresultshowevermasklargedisparities

In West and Central Africa, only 40% of patients have access to treatment. "Some countries continue to worry us, like Nigeria, which accounts for half of all new infections in West Africa," according to Sidibé.

Russia is another source of concern. The epidemic in this country "is becoming widespread. Concentrated until now in the population who inject drugs, affects more and more the population in general," said Sidibé .

He points out that Russian laws "generally punitive" prevent "from putting in place harm reduction policies drugs are injected access to health services." As a result, "these people hide and infect their partners. "

In the case of Latin America, of the 1.8 million people living with AIDS in 2017, 1.1 million (61 percent) had access to antiretroviral therapy . Sidibé also pointed out that progress in the fight against AIDS among children is insufficient, despite having prevented 1.4 million new infections among this population since 2010. "There are still more than 50% of children without access to treatment and last year there were 110,000 deaths and 180,000 new infections among them, which is inadmissible. "