According to a press release by UNAIDS, HIV-related death rates fell from 2.3 million during its peak in 2005 to 1.6 million last year, with the number of new infections falling by a third since 2001 to 2.3 million. Furthermore, according to Dr Luis Loures, the deputy executive director of UNAIDS, the epidemic could be over by 2030.
we’ve seen a 52% reduction in new infections among children and a combined 33% reduction among adults and children since 2001.
Specifically we’ve seen a 52% reduction in new infections among children and a combined 33% reduction among adults and children since 2001.
Authors of the report attribute the fall to improved access to antiretroviral drugs, which help to suppress the virus. ·
By the end of 2012, almost ten million people in low and middle income countries had access to antiretroviral therapy. These included South Africa, India and Uganda.
Improved access has been put down to the increasing availability and affordability of these drugs in communities, and more people coming forward for help. Two decades ago the average annual cost of treatment per person with HIV was $19,000 while today it is $150 thanks to generic drugs. Moreover, people are getting earlier treatment which delay the virus’s development.
According to UNAIDS, the world is ‘closing in’ on its Millennium Development Goals to stop and reverse the AIDS epidemic by 2015. But is says that there is a possibility of aiming higher than the initial target of providing HIV treatment to 15m people by 2015. The World Health Organisation has revised its guidelines in order to make more people eligible for treatment.
The report found that progress has been slow in providing services to those most at risk, such as drug users, and highlights the need to deal with sexual violence; victims are obviously a key group who are vulnerable to infection.
We can get to the end of the epidemic because we have treatments and ways to control the infection
Dr Loures, during a meeting in Panama to discuss methods to contain the virus with UN agencies, suggested that we may see an end to the epidemic by 2030.
“We can get to the end of the epidemic because we have treatments and ways to control the infection,” said Loures, “We are making progress, without a doubt.” ·
Loures also claimed that there would still be people living with the virus but improved treatments would lessen the chances of newly transmitted infections.
This article was originally published on Urban Times.
