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LONDON (REUTERS) – Complacency is beginning to delay the fight against the global AIDS epidemic, as the pace of progress does not match what is needed, the United Nations warned on Wednesday (July 18th).
UNAIDS stated in an update report that the fight was at a "precarious stage" and that as deaths declined and treatment rates increased, rates of new infections threatened to decline. to defeat the disease. "The promises made to the most vulnerable people in society are not kept," says the report. "There are still miles to go to end the AIDS epidemic, time is running out"
Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS, noted in the foreword to the report that great progress had been made in reducing the number of deaths from AIDS. The report says that 21.7 million of the 37 million people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS were on treatment in 2017, five and a half times this fast and sustained increase in the number of people treated contributed to a 34% decrease in the number of AIDS-related deaths from 2010 to 2017. AIDS deaths in 2017 were the lowest of this century, with fewer than one million people. However, Sidibe also pointed out what he said were "crisis" situations in preventing the spread of HIV, and in obtaining sustained funding.
"The success of saving lives has not been offset by the equal success of new HIV infections," he said. "New HIV infections are not diminishing fast enough. HIV prevention is not provided on an adequate scale … and does not reach the people who need it most. "
Sidibe says new infections do not stop
" I am saddened by the fact that in 2017, 180,000 children have been infected with HIV, far from the 2018 goal of eliminating new HIV infections in children, "he writes [19659007hasshownthatbetweenadultsandchildrenworldwideabout18millionpeoplehavebeeninfectedwithHIVin2017
Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s , more than 77 million people have contracted HIV, nearly half of them – 35.4 million – have died of AIDS
Port indicates that by the end of 2017, $ 21.3 billion ($ 29 billion) was available for the AIDS response in low- and middle-income countries. More than half came from domestic sources of funding rather than international donors. UNAIDS estimates that $ 26.2 billion will be needed to fund the fight against AIDS by 2020.
"There is a funding crisis," said Sidibe. While global AIDS resources increased in 2017, there was still a 20% gap between what is needed and what is available.
Such a deficit will be catastrophic for countries that rely on international aid to fight AIDS.
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