[ad_1]
Global progress to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 could be distorted by the coronavirus, a UN director has warned.
A six-month disruption in medical supplies induced by Covid-19 could lead to an additional 500,000 AIDS-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2021, according to data modeling in the UNAids annual report. The agency’s executive director, Winnie Byanyima, said the world was already far from its AIDS target, and the pandemic “has the potential to derail us even further.”
Since 2010, new HIV infections have been reduced by 23% globally, but progress has been uneven. Infections fell 38% in East and Southern Africa, but increased 72% in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 22% in the Middle East and North Africa, and 21% in Latin America.
The report found that people living with HIV / AIDS were more likely to live in conditions that made it difficult to physically distance. They had a “slightly increased risk” of dying from Covid-19, he says.
Byanyima said the findings highlighted the scale of the HIV epidemic and “how it is moving along the fault lines of inequality,” and were a call to action.
“HIV has been slipping onto the international agenda for several years. That’s why I call on leaders to come forward in support of a high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on ending AIDS in 2021 to urgently address the outstanding issues that are preventing us from ending to the epidemic as a threat to public health by 2030, ”she said.
Insufficient investment in HIV efforts means millions of people go without treatment or testing. About 38 million people are currently living with HIV, including 25.4 million on medication, the report says.
Failure to meet the 2020 target of reducing AIDS-related deaths to 500,000 or less, and new HIV infections to the same number or less, has come “at a terrible price.” From 2015 to 2020, there were 3.5 million more HIV infections and 820,000 more AIDS-related deaths than there should have been had the targets been met.
Last year, 690,000 deaths were linked to AIDS and 1.7 million new infections were recorded.
“We are significantly behind on our global goals,” said Mike Podmore, director of StopAids. “Even before the advent of Covid-19, we knew we were late and the impact of the pandemic pushed us further, while compromising future progress.”
Globally, there have been notable advances in the fight against HIV / AIDS. Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, has achieved the 2030 targets: 95% of people living with HIV know their status and the vast majority have access to treatment.
At the end of 2019, an estimated 25.4 million people had access to antiretrovirals – a figure that has more than tripled since 2010, the report says.
But he warns that social marketing budgets for condom use in sub-Saharan Africa have been reduced in recent years and that a new generation of sexually active young people have not been exposed to the intensive promotion of ten years ago. years. This may partly explain why women aged 15 to 24 accounted for 24% of HIV infections in 2019, when they made up only 10% of the population.
Women and girls of all ages accounted for 59% of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Men aged 25 and over account for the majority of new HIV infections outside this region. Transgender people are also at extremely high risk, the report says; on average, their risk of infections is 13 times higher than that of other adults.
Stigma remains a concern in many countries and denial of medical treatment due to HIV status is commonplace.
Yesterday’s announcement that the UK government would cut UK aid budgets in 2021 worries many involved in the fight against HIV / AIDS.
“The UK government has been a global leader in the HIV response for decades and these cuts would likely mean cuts in global investments in HIV and health and weaken the UK’s role in the response at this time critical, ”Podmore said.
[ad_2]
Source link