We can put an end to Aids, but following the right path – 07/13/2023 – Health

In its new Global Report, UNAIDS (United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS) shows that there is a way to end AIDS as a threat to public health, which will also help the world to face future pandemics and advance in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

The real-world data and examples presented in the report make it very clear what this path is, which is not mysterious, but the result of political and financial choice. Successful HIV responses are based on sound political leadership that follows the science and evidence, tackles the inequalities that prevent all people from accessing HIV services and tools, strengthens communities and civil society organizations, and ensures sufficient and sustainable funding.

Several countries are already on the right track. Botswana, Eswatini, Rwanda, United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe have already achieved the 95-95-95 targets. In these countries, 95% of people living with HIV know their HIV status; 95% of people who know they are living with HIV are on life-saving antiretroviral treatment; and 95% of people on treatment are virally suppressed. Another 16 are close to doing so.

In the case of Brazil, according to data from the Ministry of Health for 2022, the proportion was 88-83-95. That is, more needs to be done to expand diagnoses and access and permanence in antiretroviral treatment.

Progress towards ending AIDS as a public health threat has been strongest in countries and regions that have the greatest financial investments, such as in eastern and southern Africa, and is strongest where legal and policy frameworks do not undermine human rights, but protect.

In this sense, it is worrying that in Brazil, a country with a legal environment that is generally respectful of human rights, legislative initiatives of a discriminatory nature begin to emerge against the LGBTQIAP+ community. These laws create obstacles for certain more vulnerable segments of the population to have full access to health services and psychological counseling, in addition to increasing the burden of stigma and discrimination, which ends up, in fact, increasing the risk of HIV infection.

The UNAIDS report provides examples of how prioritizing people and communities is a key element in ending AIDS, but makes it clear that this will not happen automatically. While access to HIV treatment has helped save 20.8 million lives, these advances are still being denied to millions of people who urgently need them. Social and economic inequalities within and between countries are exacerbating and prolonging pandemics and amplifying their impact among the poorest and most vulnerable.

AIDS claimed one life per minute worldwide in 2022. There were 1.3 million new HIV infections and 9.2 million people are still without access to treatment, including 43% of children living with HIV.

Globally, 4,000 adolescent girls and young women aged between 15 and 24 are newly infected with HIV each week. Deep-seated gender inequalities and discrimination, often combined with significant levels of poverty, increase your risk of HIV infection, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women is more than three times higher than among their male counterparts. male pairs.

The obstacles standing in the way of ending AIDS are not insurmountable. On the contrary. The path to ending AIDS requires collaboration – between the global South and North, governments and communities, the UN and Member States – all acting together and in coordination. Above all, it requires courageous leadership.

The path presented in the new UNAIDS report to end AIDS as a threat to public health shows how success is still possible in this decade. But we must act together and urgently.