How to get to zero: Faster. Smarter. Better. This is the title of a new report released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) to update the status of the epidemic in the preparation of the World Day AIDS on 1 December. "We are about to make a significant breakthrough in the AIDS response," wrote the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, in the preface, urging the world to "step on the accelerator" to reach prevention and treatment goals that together can make the epidemic a halt.
According to the latest analysis of UNAIDS, the world now has an estimated population of 34 million people infected with HIV-700,000 more than in 2010. On the upside, 6.6 million people infected in low- and middle-income now receive antiretroviral (ARV), an increase of 1.3 million over the past year. "I think it is remarkable that, despite massive pressure from national and international budgets, we have seen a huge scale and at the end of 2010, about half of all people living with HIV who are eligible for treatment access, "said Bernhard Schwartländer, director of the UNAIDS evidence, strategy and results.
Schwartländer, who reviewed the report on a press conference today, noted that there were about 2.7 million new infections last year, the lowest since the epidemic peaked in 01. as part of a baseline study this year showed how treatment reduces the load virus in infected people and made them less likely to transmit the virus, he said he is "new evidence" that the scale of ARVs has had an impact on new infections in Botswana. This small country, relatively prosperous Southern Africa now has 0% of eligible HIV on treatment, and the report states that there are "early signs" that this fact, new HIV infections are 30% to 50% lower than that they would have been in the absence of drugs.
updates UNAIDS are usually a mix of good and bad news, and it has its fair share of alarming results. Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which is discussed as a region because most countries were once part of the Soviet Union, underwent a 250% increase in the number of people living with HIV in the last decade. "There is little indication that the epidemic has stabilized in the region," the report said. The most affected country in the region, Russia and Ukraine, have epidemics driven by injecting drug use, but the report notes that both countries fail to invest enough money in programs that can help most at risk populations.
Paul De Lay, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, said Science Insider that given the global financial crisis, it is particularly concerned donor countries reduce their treatment and prevention investments HIV / AIDS in hard-hit countries do not take over their own weight. "We are concerned about this and we recognize the fragility of all these systems," said De Lay. "If we do not see investments follow, we will see all of this improvement disintegrate."
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