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- Writer, Swaminathan Natarajan
- Name the person who wrote the story, BBC World Service
Despite the reduction in the number of HIV infections, the immunodeficiency virus and the death toll caused by the disease, the United Nations agency to combat HIV/AIDS has warned that the world is not ready to eliminate the threat of the disease.
The UNAIDS agency said that there are currently 39.9 million people living with the disease in the world, and almost half of this number is in southern and eastern Africa.
The number of people infected with the immunodeficiency virus has decreased by 39 percent since 2010, and the number of deaths due to the disease has decreased by half.
However, Afghanistan, Egypt, Fiji, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Saudi Arabia have reported an increase of more than 100 percent between 2010 and 2023.
Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe along with Nepal have managed to reduce the number of infected people by 75 percent since 2010.
Africa is now at the forefront of the fight against AIDS.
Some 18 countries have reduced the number of new infections annually by more than 60 percent since 2010.
Most of them are in sub-Saharan Africa, including Lesotho, Eswatini, Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Botswana, Eritrea, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Togo, Zambia, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau and Uganda, and then Tajikistan. and Portugal, Belarus and Italy.
Among those infected, 77 percent are receiving antiretroviral therapy. In sub-Saharan African countries, 82 percent of people with the disease receive this type of treatment.
Also, the life expectancy of people with the disease has increased by five years, from 56 in 2010 to 61 in 2023, due to the progress made in the fight against the disease.
UNAIDS said that the fight against the disease in African countries has given people with HIV the opportunity to reduce the risk of spreading the disease.
Laws against same-sex marriage and drug use – which are common in some countries – protect vulnerable people from the disease.
Development in sub-Saharan Africa
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“The progress that has been made in the fight against the disease, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, shows the impact that joint leadership and international efforts can have in the fight against the disease,” said Christine Stegling, assistant Director General of UNAIDS.
In a response message she sent to the BBC, she said there is a need for leaders to focus on developing ways to protect themselves from the disease, and remove the problems that prevent people from going to health centers.
“The world is on the way to eliminate AIDS as a health threat, because the main problem is the lack of access to health facilities, especially the marginalized communities. “Protection against HIV remains a challenge.”
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However, the fight against the disease in some countries is slow.
The countries Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan and Fiji and Philippines and Egypt and also Saudi Arabia reported a more than 100 percent increase in AIDS cases between 2010 and 2023.
Compared to the population of the countries, there are not many people living with HIV in Afghanistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
But there is hope. UNAIDS forecasts show that if funding and support measures are continued, the threat of HIV could be ended globally within six years.
