Because matter. The fight against AIDS is projected towards 2025

It’s no longer the most discussed virus, but the HIV epidemic isn’t over.

On the occasion of World AIDS Day, UNAIDS calls on countries to step up their global action against HIV, with new “ambitious but achievable” goals for 2025.

The global response to AIDS was not on track even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, but the spread of the coronavirus has created further setbacks, notes the UN agency dedicated to fighting this disease.

The 2020 targets will not be met, although some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Botswana and Eswatini (Swaziland), have even surpassed them. These goals for 2020 can be summarized by the 90-90-90 formula: that 90% of people living with HIV know their status, that 90% of them are being treated and that of these, 90% has an undetectable viral load.

Because matter. Thirty-eight million people are living with HIV, and more than 12 million people are awaiting treatment, which is now life-saving. In 2019, 1.7 million people were recently infected with HIV and 690,000 people died from AIDS-related diseases.

According to UNAIDS estimates, 26 million people were being treated for HIV in June 2020, an increase of only 2.4% from the end of 2019. According to UNAIDS, between 2020 and 2022 there could be 123,000 to 293,000 new HIV infections and 69,000 to 148,000 additional AIDS-related deaths.

“The collective inability to invest enough in comprehensive, rights-based, people-centered responses to HIV has come at a terrible price,” said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS executive director. “Getting the global response back on track will require putting people first and addressing the inequalities that epidemics thrive on,” he adds.

Marginalized public

The global targets proposed for 2025 specifically focus on those most at risk and marginalized: young women and girls, teenagers, sex workers, transgender people, people who inject drugs and gay men. , stresses UNAIDS. New “95-95-95” screening targets must be achieved in subpopulations and in all age groups.

In particular, it is also expected that 95% of people at risk have access to appropriate prevention options (condoms, drugs, etc.), that 95% of HIV-positive pregnant or lactating women have an undetectable viral load thanks to treatment and that 95% of children exposed to HIV need to be tested by 2025.

Socially, this program has “anti-discrimination goals so that less than 10% of countries have punitive laws and policies, less than 10% of people living with and living with HIV experience stigma and discrimination and fewer than 10 % are victims of gender inequalities and violence “. Access of at least 90% of HIV-positive people and people at increased risk of HIV infection to services for the treatment of other communicable diseases (e.g. tuberculosis) or not (diabetes, cardiovascular, etc.), as well as the management of mental disorders and sexual violence is one of these main goals.