AIDS: UN alert, HIV increases in 50 countries, slow progress

Written by:

Health Adnkronos

Rome, 18 July. (AdnKronos Health) – Global HIV Alert: The fight against the disease is slowing down and the targets set for 2020 are appearing more and more distant. This is reported by UNAIDS, the United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS in the report titled "A long journey remains to be done", presented today in Paris, from which emerges a disturbing given: new HIV infections are increasing in 50 countries. And this despite the number of deaths, thanks to therapies, reached the lowest level ever reached in this century (with 940 thousand deaths). But – says the report – the decline is not fast enough to reach the 2020 target of falling below half a million a year.
And again: in one year, 2.3 million people had access to treatment, a record in this case as well, bringing to 21.7 million patients in treatment and nearly 60% of 36.9 million people affected by HIV in 2017 were in therapy. However, this success is not enough, because to reach the goal of 30 million people on treatment, 2.8 million new patients should have access to treatment each year. This indicates that access to treatment is slowing down. Obviously, the most penalized countries are those in Africa. In 2017, only 26% of children and 41% of adults had access to treatment in West and Central Africa, compared to 59% of children and 66% of adults in East and Southern Africa.
Unaids therefore calls for immediate action to put the world on track to meet the 2020 targets. "We are sounding an alarm call," said Michel Sidibé, executive director of the # 39; UNAIDS. "Entire regions are lagging behind, the great progress we have made on children is not permanent, women continue to be the most affected, the resources invested are not suited to political commitments and," concludes he, the "key populations" All these elements hinder progress and we must act urgently, "he warns

Written by:

Adnkronos Health