A top United Nations officials says the global HIV/AIDS epidemic
could be over by 2030 thanks to advancements in treatment, control and
prevention of the disease.
“I think that 2030 is a viable target to say that we have reached the end of the epidemic,” said Luis Loures, a deputy executive director of UNAIDS, the UN agency leading the fight against HIV/AIDS. “HIV will continue existing as a case here or there but not at the epidemic level we have today.”
According to AFP, Loures was in Panama last week to to
discuss AIDS strategy with UN agencies in Latin America. With three million new
HIV infections and 1.7 million people deaths each year from complications due
to AIDS, the epidemic is still very much an issue at hand. But Loures is quick
to trumpet the progress made in treating the disease and controlling infection.
AFP reports:
Two decades ago the average annual cost of treatment per person
with HIV was $19,000 while today it is $150 thanks to generic
drugs. Moreover, people with HIV are getting treatment earlier, which
retards the disease’s development. According to UNAIDS, the annual
incidence of new infections has fallen 20 percent over the past decade, and in
25 countries, including 13 in sub-Saharan Africa, it has fallen by 50
percent. Over the past two years, the number of people who have obtained
treatment for HIV has increased by 60 percent.
Loures stressed the importance of reaching “the most vulnerable
groups” like gay men, sex workers and drug users who often do not seek
treatment for fear of being stigmatized or criminally prosecuted. “If we do not
succeed in controlling the epidemic among these groups,” Loures warned, “AIDS
will stay with us.”
So you heard the man, wrap it up, kids!
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