UN: 2024 is crucial for AIDS to cease being a threat

In Latin America, the United Nations reported that in 2023 there was an increase in HIV infections compared to 2010. However, the number of AIDS-related deaths decreased in the region.

The steps taken by political leaders this year will be crucial to achieving the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, the UN agency dedicated to combating the disease said on Monday (22.07.2024).

The 2023 figures show a global improvement in the number of new infections, the treatment of HIV-positive patients and a decline in mortality, but UNAIDS recalled that the pandemic has killed more than 42 million people and that progress remains fragile.

In 2023, just under 40 million people were living with the virus that causes AIDS, HIV, according to the organization’s annual report.

Around 1.3 million new infections were recorded last year, 100,000 fewer than in 2022, which is also a significant decrease compared to the peak of 3.3 million reached in 1995.

But UNAIDS is not satisfied because the target of no more than 330,000 infections by 2025 seems unattainable.

THE CHALLENGE OF ACCESS TO ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY

AIDS also killed fewer people: 630,000 deaths in 2023 compared to 670,000 the previous year. Access to antiretroviral therapy is the main challenge, as it is very effective today.

By the end of December 2023, 30.7 million people had access to one of these therapies, compared to just 7.7 million in 2010, but the figure remains far from the 2025 target of 34 million people. In addition, nearly a quarter of people infected with the virus do not have access to treatment.

Eastern and Southern Africa remain the most affected regions, with 20.8 million people living with HIV, 450,000 infected last year and 260,000 deaths.

MORE INFECTIONS, BUT FEWER DEATHS IN LATIN AMERICA IN 2023 COMPARED TO 2010

Latin America is one of three regions that will see an increase in new HIV infections in 2023, with 120,000 or 9% more than in 2010, according to a new report by UNAIDS presented on Monday, in which this joint United Nations programme warns in particular of the situation of migrant and indigenous populations.

Last year, an estimated 2.3 million people were living with HIV in Latin America, where the number of AIDS-related deaths fell by 28% compared to 2010, to an estimated 30,000, although it increased among the female population in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.

With information from DW