Mixed progress in the fight against the AIDS epidemic
The 2010 Global Report on the AIDS Epidemic, released this morning by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), reveals progress in the fight against the epidemic – albeit much too slowly. Globally, new infections have fallen, AIDS-related deaths are down and the total number of people living with HIV is stabilizing.
Data from the 2010 UNAIDS report estimates that 2.6 million people became newly infected with HIV and the number of AIDS-related deaths decreased to 1.8 million in 2009, compared to 3.1 new infections in 1999 and 2.1 million deaths in 2004. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected by the epidemic, 1.8 million people became newly infected with HIV and 1.3 million AIDS-related deaths occurred in 2009.
By the end of 2009, 33.3 million people globally were living with HIV largely due to improvements in access to treatment. Additionally, from 2001 to 2009, the rate of new HIV infections stabilized or decreased by more than 25% in at least 56 countries around the world – including 34 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
While the number of new HIV infections is slowing and access to treatment has improved, there are still two new HIV infections for every one person that starts HIV treatment around the world. Investments in HIV prevention programs have not been adequately funded and represent only about 22% of all AIDS-related spending. Also, while some 5.25 million people are now on life-saving antiretroviral therapy, another 10 million are waiting for treatment. And, for some marginalized populations, the wait will be even longer.
Although continued improvements in access to treatment are needed, there has been progress in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to ensure that no child is born with HIV by 2015. In 2009, 54% of pregnant women living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa received antiretroviral drugs to prevent transmission of the virus to their children, up from only 15% in 2005.
At the launch of the report, Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, said, “We are breaking the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic with bold action and smart choices. Investments in the AIDS response are paying off, but gains are fragile — the challenge now is how we can all work to accelerate progress.”
While we celebrate the progress that has been made, we are mindful that much work remains to be accomplished. Be sure to check the blog next week for a series on HIV/AIDS leading up to World AIDS Day on 1 December.
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27/11/2010 at 8:33 am
i live in california and i do not have hiv. my daughter does. in the ninties i knew a lot of people that had hiv also. i had to turn down some dates because i feared the person had it. my instincts about hiv has kept me free from it but i just wish my daughter had the same instinct i believe prevention is the best cure. works for me. also i have reseached the disease as much as i could. i dont use needles i wont date unless im sure of my partner. some may think this is too far to go but i say it is just far enough. i have proof from the doctor and can provide it whenever i need to “how romantic” anyway prevention is still the best cure. also here in the central valley of california there was an explosion of hiv cases in the ninties and beyond. some neighborhoods have gotten it under control now after it started to catch like wildfire. its all crazy and not too many are willing to talk about it….not me whenever wherever prevention
28/11/2010 at 10:42 pm
I live in Newark, NJ and my sister and I are the oldest of seven. In the early 90′s I lost seven uncles and aunts from Aids in Jersey City, NJ. Years later my oldest sister caught hiv at 13 after being raped by a family freind. She has since had two sons 12 and 14 which was born with hiv. It made her crazy and life has never been the same for her.She now is very sad about having her two sons. However I dont have hiv and being a aunt is every thing to me. My son is 15 they are the only cousins he knows. I cant see life without them I cry as I type this becuse I understand one day they will die. I wish that her kids could live on . I wish they never have to understand some things they will never do. The only thing they are trying to do is just live not make A’s but live. I hope no mother has to worry about dying. I belive what kills her most is to know that her child may die before she will. God knows I have not been able to understand the insanity life brings to some. I hope that there is help for those kids who loose a mother with hiv and suffer the same deadly faith. I have seen neighborhood kids with hiv grow up and go crazy. Many of the kids, without parents turn to hard crime. They become bitter with the world and find themselves in jail when they needed a doctor. Others are left to die because no one wants to get near them to help. I stopped crying typing this letter because I hope that around 2015 no child no matter where they are born may never be born with hiv. Or born with a death sentence.That can make up for my heart breaking lost! What do I say to my oldest sister who is afraid of not the poverty she lives in but shaking scared of the death of her family. I belive 2015 will make up for all the pain if no one else will have to go threw it. Also by the way I do tell her something! I say “Yea im walking threw the valley of death not golden roads but the valley of death but thall are with me God”. I still cant understand how living life can be a valley of death for kids.That would be a Godly thing to do is to be able to stop so much pain by 2015.
29/11/2010 at 1:09 am
in my former post here i left out a lot of details about my daughter and i. in 1990 her mom and i divorced. my daughter was only 6 then.her mom took her several hundred miles away from where i live. i was thrust into a new type of a single dating world. one i was scared of. i was always the type of person that could not drink after anyone else. yuk! i have been like this since childhood. to see people sleeping with each other without worrying about the results was yuk! to me from the start. every now and then a younger woman so pretty in her youth would come on to me. but i would know things like, “who she was sleeping with” i am so glad i realize these things because if i wasnt i would be dying right now. i would have caught it in 1994 from “bumper” as she is called now. one day when my daughter was about 15 her mother calls me to tell me my daughter is missing. i drive all the way there and start looking door to door. i go through every bush in every park looking. then i find her. she was living with a 30 year old in an abandoned house . she was pregnant. i took her home with me . the guy went to jail for being with a minor. i should have been there for her when she was younger so this wouldnt happen. at 15 she had track marks on her arm, a big belly and her mom just didnt seem to be as worried as she should have been. it was through a needle that my daughter caught hiv . she passed it to little tru but the doctors said the virus is contrlled in him but my daughter is dying . she is now living with the guy who gave it to her. my exwife is raising both my daughter”s children. my daughter is lost but i love her. when i travel to that town i visit my daughter first. i try to be a positive influence in her life. recently she was granted ssi social security dissability for her condition. as for me and dating….ever since i turned down the date with bumper and others , there was started a rumour that i am gay for turning anyone down. now i know better. but i seemed to be surrounded by idiots who still dont know any better. it is so great to be able to post on this forum and read replies and stories by people that are smart and informed through heartbreaking tragedy most of the time. i wish people could be this informed without living through the hell of infection. yes my daughter lives in poverty and i cry for her.