MUNICH - World leaders have pledged to help end the Aids pandemic as a public health threat by 2030, but doing so will require more resources and better protection of human rights, says Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS.
Leaders have pledged to reduce annual new infections to below 370,000 by next year, but they are still more than three times that number, at 1.3 million in 2023. And now cuts in resources and a rising anti-rights push are endangering the progress that has been made, Ms Byanyima told delegates to the 25th International Aids Conference (AIDS2024), being held in Munich from July 22-26.
“They can uphold their promise, but only if they ensure that the HIV response has the resources it needs and that the human rights of everyone are protected,” she said as she launched a new report by the UN agency titled “The Urgency of Now: Aids at a Crossroads”.
“Leaders can save millions of lives, prevent millions of new HIV infections and ensure that everyone living with HIV can live healthy.”
The report brings together new data and case studies which demonstrate that the decisions and policy choices taken by world leaders this year will decide the fate of millions of lives, and whether the world’s deadliest pandemic can be overcome.
It says the end of Aids is within reach. But globally, of the 39.9 million people living with HIV, 9.3 million, nearly a quarter, are still not receiving life-saving treatment. As a consequence, a person dies from Aids-related causes every minute.
The report also finds that if world leaders take the bold actions needed now to ensure sufficient and sustainable resources and protection of human rights, the number of people living with HIV and requiring life-long treatment will settle at around 29 million by 2050.
But if they take the wrong path, it says, the number of people who will need life-long support will rise to 46 million, compared to 39.9 million in 2023.
The report demonstrates that HIV prevention and treatment services will only reach people if human rights are upheld, if unfair laws against women and marginalised communities are scrapped, and if discrimination and violence are tackled head-on.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who presided over opening of AIDS 2024 on Monday, said his country was ready to support and provide funding to the global campaign to help end the Aids pandemic by 2030.
Asia Pacific situation
In 2023 there were an estimated 6.7 million people living with HIV in the Asia Pacific region. This is the world’s largest concentration of cases after eastern and southern Africa. There were 150,000 Aids-related deaths in Asia Pacific last year. Since 2010, deaths due to Aids have declined by 51%.
The Asia Pacific region accounted for 23% of new HIV infections globally last year. There were 150,000 new infections in 2023, or one every two minutes.
New infections in the region have declined by just 13% since 2010. This slow reduction is due largely due to rising caseloads in six countries. Since 2010, new infections have risen in Afghanistan (175%), Bangladesh (20%), Fiji (241%), Laos (23%), Papua New Guinea (104%) and the Philippines (543%).
Efforts to increase access to a combination of HIV prevention services — including harm reduction, self-testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP — remain inadequate. (PrEP is HIV treatment used to prevent people from contracting the virus if exposed.)
The report noted that although 79% of new infections in the region are among key populations and their sexual partners, just 15% of HIV expenditure went to prevention programmes in these populations. They are: men who have sex with men, people in prisons and other closed settings, people who use drugs, sex workers and transgender people.
Across the region, new infections have increased by 32% among men who have sex with men since 2010.
“We have the tools to end Aids. We have prevention options,” said Dr Nittaya Phanuphak, executive director of Thailand’s Institute of HIV Research and Innovation (IHRI). “We just need sincere and consistent commitments from leaders around the world to support community leadership to bring these tools to the people in need of them.”
“We have a moral and public health imperative to help people learn their status, start them on treatment right away if they are positive, and ensure the treatment works completely,” said Eamonn Murphy, regional director of UNAIDS for Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
“When people test negative they must be offered a range of prevention options so they can stay negative. With the proven prevention, testing and treatment options available, this slow progress in reducing new infections is unacceptable.”