“Every day, 4,000 people (including 1,100 young people aged 15 to 24) are infected with HIV worldwide”. The World AIDS Report, which reveals the information, also states that HIV infections have now increased since 2015 in 38 countries worldwide. Better, ”if current trends continue, 1.2 million people will be newly infected with HIV in 2025, three times more than the target of 370,000 new infections set for 2025. Already, 650,000 [500 000-860 000] people died of AIDS-related causes, or one every minute.
This worrying situation emanates from the UNAIDS Global Report 2022 launched last Thursday by the UNAIDS Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Ms. Berthild Gahongayire in the presence of the UNAIDS Regional Program Advisor, Mr. Mach-Houd Kouton. This was during a virtual regional press conference attended by journalists who are members of the African Media Network for the Promotion of Health and Environment (REMAPSEN) on the occasion of the launch of the 2022 global report of UNAIDS. While Mr Mach-Houd Kouton dwelt a great deal on regional specificities, the UNAIDS Regional Director for West and Central Africa underlined all the consequences of the increase in infections with HIV by drawing everyone’s attention to the fact that “the response to AIDS is seriously threatened”.
As also stated in the report entitled, ”danger”, all the signs are worrying. First, “the expansion of HIV testing and treatment services is stagnating”. As a result, the number of people on HIV treatment increased by only 1.47 million in 2021, compared to net increases of more than 2 million people in previous years. According to the report, ”this is the smallest increase since 2009. The greatest increase was recorded in West and Central Africa, while the increase in East and Southern Africa was lower than in previous years. previous. However, treatment coverage is the same in both regions: 78% of people living with HIV will receive antiretroviral therapy.
There are also other stark inequalities that the report says are “a consequence of and a cause of slowing progress in the fight once morest AIDS.
And while three quarters of all people living with HIV have access to antiretroviral treatment, around 10 million people do not have access to it, and only half (52%) of children living with HIV have access to life-saving drugs; the HIV treatment coverage gap between children and adults is widening rather than narrowing.
“The most vulnerable and marginalized people are the hardest hit.” In sub-Saharan Africa, the report says, adolescent girls and young women (aged 15-24) who become infected with HIV every three minutes are three times more likely to contract HIV than adolescents and young men in same age group. In short, women and girls are at increased risk, says the same source.
The other worrying factor is the increasingly strained economic context. Indeed, according to the report, threats to funding might further undermine the response. During the press conference, the Regional Director for West and Central Africa highlighted the consequences of dwindling resources available for the fight once morest HIV in low- and middle-income countries. This is slowing progress and will starve countries of the resources needed for their HIV responses by $8 billion by 2025. All of this comes at a time when “low- and middle-income countries are plagued by higher tax burdens due to the COVID-19 pandemic”, then to “the war in Ukraine”.
However, there are bright spots, including the sharp drop in the annual number of HIV infections in the Caribbean and West and Central Africa. The latter being largely due to improvements in Nigeria. For the document “these declines in infections represent an acceleration of progress, but in aggregate figures, this progress is however drowned in the absence of progress in other regions”. That’s why he argues that “new investments are needed now to end AIDS by 2030.”
To give a new impetus to HIV prevention, the UNAIDS 2022 report indicates that, among other things, it is necessary to realize human rights; effectively support and fund community responses; ensure sufficient and sustainable funding; address inequities in access to and outcomes from HIV prevention, testing and treatment, and close the gaps that exist in particular localities and groups.
After the intervention of the Regional Director for West and Central Africa and that of the UNAIDS Regional Program Adviser, the session was closed with a series of questions asked by the journalists and the answers given by the two speakers.
Fatouma Ide (Onep)