Big drop in HIV infection rates
Nearly 60 million people have been infected since the AIDS epidemic began. (AFP: Ahmad Zamroni)
There is growing hope the global fight against AIDS has reached a turning point, with a new United Nations report showing big falls in new infections of HIV.
But the report also provides some sobering figures. Nearly 60 million people have been infected and around 25 million people have died since the epidemic began.
The report from UNAIDS documents the deadly impact of the disease but co-author Dr Peter Ghys, the director of the agency's Epidemiology Division, says there is cause for hope.
"If you look at the number of new infections it certainly gives us all hope," he said.
"At the same time, it is still a formidable number. It's about 2.7 million new infections in a year. That translates to about 7,400 infections per day. That is a huge challenge."
Dr Ghys says that education and prevention campaigns in the developing world are having an impact.
"Most of that progress actually comes in countries of sub-Saharan Africa but also in parts of Asia," he said.
"We estimate that about 200,000 children have been prevented from being infected because of the programs, with anti-retroviral drugs given to pregnant women."
But there has also been substantial progress on treatment for those who have been infected.
Dr Ghys says there are many more people alive thanks to access to anti-viral medication.
"In the past year, the estimate is that about 1 million more people have gone on anti-retroviral treatment, so that is a major advance," he said.
"Mortality due to HIV has declined by about 10 per cent over the past five years and we also estimate that about 2.9 million people have been saved.
"It is still the case today that for every two people that are put on anti-retroviral treatment, about five people get newly infected.
No comments:
Post a Comment