“Therefore, a massive scale-up of efforts from governments and global agencies will be required to meet the estimated $36 billion needed every year to realise the goal of ending AIDS by 2030, along with better detection and treatment programmes and improving the affordability of antiretroviral drugs”, says the Director of IHME, Professor Christopher Murray.
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On the first day of the 21st International AIDS Conference, UNICEF heads a session on South Africa’s achievements since 2000 towards the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and chairs a session that will showcase the potential of mobile applications such as ‘Mom Connect, ‘ successfully used in South Africa to link pregnant women and mothers to health care, to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and to improve the health of mothers and children living with HIV.
HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of death and disease burden and a major new global analysis now shows that 1.96 lakh new HIV infections were reported in India in 2015.
“With these countries sometimes, it may take 50 years”.
Further, while 29.66 lakh people were living with HIV infections in South Asia, 1.35 lakh lakh died of HIV/AIDS in 2015.
“When somebody hears that he or she is positive, they come to my organization, they say, ‘How many years am I going to live?'” said Zodwa Ndlovu, who joined hundreds of grandmothers this weekend to demand more support as caregivers for children orphaned by the epidemic.
Ban Ki-moon also warned that urgent action was needed to avoid progress being lost.
To end this epidemic, we must close the gaps that keep people from accessing services and living with dignity.
The United Nations has set a target of ending the AIDS pandemic by 2030.
7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Only half receive treatment. “But I guarantee it will change”, the musician said. If we don’t make the right strategic choices, we risk reversing hard-won gains. “Delay is tantamount to defeat”, Beyrer said.
On the eve of the conference, we spoke to Dr. Larry Corey, director of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and Dr. Glenda Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council and the co-leader of the HVTN, to talk about what’s coming in the world of HIV vaccine and prevention.
The conference was a contentious affair, but its emotional impact transformed the AIDS campaign.
Campaigners accused drugs companies of providing life-saving drugs to HIV patients in rich countries but ignoring counterparts in poor economies.
“When the global AIDS community last met (in Durban) in 2000, only a few thousand Africans were receiving antiretroviral drugs”, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said in a speech on the eve of the meeting.
With no cure for the virus in sight, patients today still face lifelong reliance on the expensive antiretroviral drugs which cause side effects.
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“It is clear that having the largest treatment program on the planet isn’t enough”, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote for the Daily Maverick website last week.
