UNAIDS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said – the world was headed for a “generation free of AIDS”, after UNAIDS reported a 35-percent drop in new HIV infections from 15 years ago.
The positive news was also coupled with calls for more funding, with the objective of eliminating the virus by 2030. The United Nations also warned that continuing stigmatisation of sex workers, drug users and homosexuals were barriers to progress.
In Global Development Summit he reported that “We have achieved and exceeded the goals regarding AIDS. We have 15 million people on HIV treatment”. We are on the way to a generation free of AIDS, The world has delivered on halting and reversing the AIDS epidemic. Now we must commit to ending the AIDS epidemic.
Findings
1.The HIV infections declined to two million in 2014 against 3.1 million 14 years ago and the number of new infections has noticeably decreased or remained stagnant, UNAIDS warned spending had plateaued.
2.There are currently 36.9 million people living with HIV around the world. Around March this year, 15 million of them were accessing anti-retroviral therapy.
3.In 2011 world leaders called for reaching 15 million people with life-saving HIV treatment by 2015. And that is exactly what the world did – ahead of schedule,” said UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe in a report entitled “How AIDS changed everything.”
Conclusion
1.The UN has set up an ambitious treatment target to help end the AIDS epidemic, aiming to ensure that 90 percent of all people living with HIV will know their status and that 90 percent of those diagnosed with HIV will receive anti-retroviral therapy.
2.The third target is that 90 percent of all people receiving anti-retroviral therapy will have viral suppression.
3.2015 is the deadline year for the Millennium Development Goals which in September 2000 rallied the world around a common 15-year agenda to tackle poverty and hunger, prevent deadly but treatable diseases and expand educational opportunities to all children.
4.In September, world leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York to adopt a new agenda for sustainable development in which health is one of the top priorities.
5.Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region worst hit by AIDS with 25.8 million people living with HIV. Last year, there were 1.4 million new HIV infections — a 39 percent drop from 2000.
