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GENEVA – United Nations HIV and AIDS program warns that stigma and discrimination against marginalized populations are driving both the AIDS crisis and COVID-19 and must be addressed and eliminated to end what officials call the double collective pandemic.
In a report released ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1, the UN agency called on governments to put the most vulnerable at the center of their responses to the pandemic.
HIV / AIDS emerged nearly 40 years ago. Although progress has been made in treating the disease, AIDS remains a threat to public health. Last year, UNAIDS reported that 1.7 million people were infected with HIV and 690,000 died.
Health officials said the global response to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 was off track even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The rapid spread of the coronavirus, they said, is creating further setbacks.
Part of UNAIDS’s new strategy to fight AIDS is to direct money to the people most at risk. However, Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the Netherlands, said this is not happening.
He noted that a study commissioned by the Netherlands found that only 2% of global AIDS funding goes to those most at risk.
“Sixty-two percent of new HIV infections are among gay men, sex workers, drug addicts and transgender people,” Kaag said. “How can we end the HIV pandemic, or any other pandemic, if we ignore the people most at risk? Stigma and criminalization prevent access to medical services, and this is exactly how pandemics continue to spread.” .
Eastern and Southern Africa is the region most affected by HIV. The region is home to nearly 21 million out of 38 million people living with HIV in the world. The study said 12 million were not receiving treatment for their disease.
However, even under these circumstances, countries like Eswatini and Botswana in sub-Saharan Africa and Cambodia and Thailand in Asia have made significant progress in addressing the deadly disease by implementing people-centered policies.
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said governments must focus on helping the most vulnerable and marginalized people. He said they must target preventive measures and reproductive and other health services and not just implement policies that are politically desirable.
“We will have to be more focused, focusing on the hot spots, not choosing what we want to tackle because that’s what we feel comfortable with,” Byanyima said. Efforts must be “evidence-based, targeting closely where the risk lies, not where we don’t want to see.”
Byanyima said governments must also focus on reducing the inequalities that underlie HIV and COVID-19. He said more needs to be invested in strengthening health systems and providing care and treatment to all those in need. He said respecting the human rights of the people most at risk is crucial to fending off double pandemics.
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