Life
New HIV infections in Africa reducing rapidly – latest UN report
Africa is pulling out all the stops in its race to curb the AIDS pandemic by 2015, a deadline set by UN member states. From making anti-retroviral drug therapy (ART) readily available to the masses, to increasing consistent, correct condom use and voluntary medical male circumcision, everything has been tried and tested. And these efforts are paying off, according to the latest report of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Africa has cut AIDS-related deaths by one third in the past six years, the report says. Even countries with the highest HIV prevalence in the world have seen the number of new HIV infections decline dramatically.
Malawi has witnessed a 73 percent drop in new HIV infections. Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe follow. South Africa managed to reduce new infections by 41 percent. Swaziland, the country with the highest HIV prevalence in the world, saw new HIV infections drop by 37 percent. Meanwhile, in other regions of Africa, Ghana topped the list, followed by Burkina Faso and Djibouti.
Leaders on the continent have been funneling money into their national AIDS programs. In 2012, South Africa invested US$1.9 billion from public sources for its national AIDS response. Kenya doubled its domestic investments for AIDS between 2008 and 2010, and Togo did the same between 2007 and 2010.
The scaled-up response has been most effective in boosting the number of people on ART treatment and reducing the number of children born with HIV. Six African countries (Burundi, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Togo and Zambia) saw a 40 percent reduction in the number of children newly infected by the virus between 2009 and 2011.
“It is becoming evident that achieving zero new HIV infections in children is possible,” says Michel Sidibé, the UNAIDS executive director. “I am excited that far fewer babies are being born with HIV. We are moving from despair to hope.”
North Africa has not fared so well. The number of people newly infected with HIV each year has risen since 2001, although overall numbers remain relatively low.
On 1 December, World AIDS Day, Mr. Sidibé called on the world to renew its commitment to zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. At a UN high-level meeting on AIDS in New York in 2011, global leaders agreed to meet the ambitious targets of significantly reducing the sexual transmission of HIV, virtually eliminate mother-to-child HIV transmission and achieve universal access to treatment by 2015. Mr. Sidibé believes that with “political will and follow through,” the world can reach those shared goals.
HIV treatment is for life, UNAIDS emphasizes, and people living with the virus need to take pills every day. It urges African countries to incorporate community support strategies to complement clinical services and to keep down program management costs and drug prices. Basically, more people need access to treatment to live longer and more productive lives.
Source: Africa Renewal