World AIDS Day: UN hopes to end epidemic by 2030

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© Manjunath Kiran, AFP | An HIV-positive person from the Support and Care Centre of the Sumanahalli Society prepares 'red ribbons' on the eve of World Aids Day in Bangalore on November 30, 2015.

Text by FRANCE 24 

Latest update : 2015-12-01

Widely seen as a death sentence not too long ago, HIV/AIDS and the 30-year battle against it have turned a corner. Yet challenges remain as a new goal emerges: to end the epidemic by 2030.

For this year’s World AIDS Day on Tuesday, there is much to celebrate.

New HIV infections have fallen by 35 percent since 2000, according to data from the United NationsAIDS programme, and AIDS-related deaths have dropped by 42 percent since a high in 2004. Furthermore, as of June 2015, 15.8 million people living with HIV had access to treatment, up from 13.6 million just a year earlier.

“For the first time we can say that we broke the trajectory of this epidemic,” Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, said in a video posted on YouTube on November 16.

Rebound of epidemic?

While there have been significant gains since the virus was first identified in 1984, sobering facts underscore HIV’s status as a serious public health challenge, particularly in some regions of Africa.

There were an estimated 1.4 million new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa last year and about 790,000 people are estimated to have died from AIDS-related illnesses during the same time period, according to UNAIDS data. And the number of adolescent deaths from AIDS has tripled over the past 15 years.

Despite widespread availability of HIV testing, only about half the people with HIV around the world are estimated to know they are carriers.

UNAID’s Sidibé sounded a note of caution in the video. “The job is not done. If we stop, if we don’t continue to work, unfortunately, we will have a rebound in this epidemic,” he said.

The video ended with a plea: “Let us end this epidemic by 2030,” Sidibé said. This new goal is part of an agreement made in September by member countries of the United Nations.

Efforts to get lifesaving antiretrovial drugs to patients with HIV in many sub-Saharan African countries routinely fail at "the last mile", the medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders(Médécins Sans Frontières) said in a report released on Monday.

Despite the medicines being available, the drugs often do not reach clinics because of "cumbersome procedures, logistical challenges or lack of resources," the group said.

Drug distribution troubles 
South Africa has the world’s biggest AIDS epidemic. About 6.3 million people of its 53 million population are HIV-positive, nearly 20 percent of the adult population, according to UNAIDS. Millions have died since the epidemic began.

Nationwide surveys conducted in the country showed that between 20 and 25 percent of local health centres were unable to dispense the full amount of HIV medication needed by patients. In 80 percent of the cases, the drugs were available in the country but did not reach the clinics.

"Antiretroviral treatment needs to be taken for life, without interruption," said Gilles Van Cutsem, MSF's medical coordinator in South Africa.

"But how can patients be expected to remain adherent to their treatment if their medicines are not available when and where they need them?"

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)

Date created : 2015-11-30