2024-01-05 18:13:55
More than 15,000 participants expected
München
January 5, 2024 – 7:13 p.m
3
Min.
You must log in to use this functionality.
In the 1980s, the then new immunodeficiency disease AIDS caused fears. It has now faded into the background – although the HIV virus continues to spread. The World AIDS Conference in Munich in mid-2024 wants to once once more declare war on the virus.
Millions live with the virus, hundreds of thousands continue to die from it every year: Even if the danger of infection with the HIV virus is hardly talked regarding anymore, the disease AIDS has not been banned. This year, Munich will be the meeting point for the world’s largest scientific meeting on the subject of HIV. More than 15,000 participants are expected at the 25th World AIDS Conference from July 22nd to 26th, 2024.
At the invitation of the International Aids Society (IAS), scientists, doctors, health experts and activists from more than 175 countries want to discuss ways to contain HIV and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome AIDS in the Bavarian capital.
The number of infections is rising once more, especially in Eastern Europe; in Africa they remain high. Around two thirds of all global infections are registered in Africa, says Christoph Spinner from the University Hospital on the Right of the Isar at the Technical University of Munich, who is chairing the local congress.
Around 40 million people worldwide are living with the virus, and around 9.2 million have no or insufficient access to therapy. Only half of children with HIV can receive life-saving medication. The inequality in treatment between children and adults is increasing. Around 630,000 people died from AIDS-related causes in 2022.
There are good treatment options today, says Spinner. However, the drugs are not available everywhere, especially in poorer countries. AIDS 2024 aims to mobilize political, scientific and social forces under the motto “Put people and communities first” to make treatment possible for infected people worldwide.
Medicines enable normal life
“Thanks to modern therapy, people with HIV can lead normal lives and age healthily,” says Spinner. “Successful HIV therapy suppresses virus replication and thus also prevents the potential transmission of an HIV infection.” Those affected might therefore work in all professions – including in the healthcare sector.
More information is also needed regarding preventative medications, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), says Spinner. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) also points this out. It has registered a decline in infections among men who have sex with men for years.
The RKI concludes that the fact that there was no new increase in 2022 following contact options were limited due to Corona might be due to increased use of PrEP. PrEP is almost completely unknown among sex workers, intravenous drug users and heterosexuals with frequently changing partners. In the last two groups in particular, there was no noticeable decline in new infections; in fact, the numbers increased slightly. Spinner demands that these groups need to be specifically informed regarding PrEP.
However, various generic drug manufacturers reported supply bottlenecks for HIV PrEP. “Our clinical experience shows that alternative preparations can currently be used. “Nevertheless, this process is worrying and endangers prevention, especially in risk groups, and the treatment of people with HIV,” says Spinner.
Germany: Halving the number of new infections
According to him, in 2022, around 520 people nationwide were infected through heterosexual means (310 women and 210 men), and around 370 more people were infected through intravenous drug use. In the past 30 to 40 years, Germany has managed to halve the number of new infections, says Spinner, referring to RKI figures. From almost 4,000 people per year at the end of the 1980s, the numbers have fallen to around 1,900 in 2022.
But even in Germany, around one in five diagnoses are only made once the immune deficiency disease has broken out. In this country, too, around one in ten people affected does not yet know regarding their infection – with the risk of unknowingly passing on the virus.
“HIV is primarily transmitted by people whose HIV infection has not yet been diagnosed. In addition, mortality is higher with late diagnoses. Using condoms remains a cornerstone of the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted pathogens,” explained the RKI at the end of 2022.
From Eastern Europe, where the number of infections is rising significantly, Andriy Klepikov will be there as a co-chair of the 25th World AIDS Congress. The increase in Eastern Europe is caused, among other things, by a lack of access to health services and drug use – and exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, said Klepikov. In some cases there is no access to care or it has collapsed due to the war – or HIV and the transmission routes are criminalized.
The first World AIDS Conference took place in 1985. During the pandemic it ran online; In 2022 there was a partly on-site meeting in Montreal, Canada. The conference rotates between continents so that as many people as possible from all over the world can take part, explains the IAS association. AIDS 2026 is scheduled to take place in Latin America.
dpa/forests
Always stay up to date
Click on the topics you want to be informed regarding. If there is news, you will receive a notification on the homepage. If desired, also by email.
To your topic overview
new comment
new comments
No comments have been written on this topic yet
Include articles
1704479832
#World #AIDS #Conference #Millions #HIVinfected #people #treatment