26th June, 2015
Further action is urgently needed to stop new HIV infections and expand access to antiretroviral treatments or there is a risk of a rebound in the global AIDS epidemic, according to a joint Lancet Commission/UNAIDS report.
The report, Defeating AIDS – Advancing global health, found that while "enormous gains" have been made in the fight against AIDS through increasing access to HIV treatment globally, the rate of new HIV infections is not falling fast enough – a fact which, combined with population growth in some of the most affected countries, is resulting in an increasing number of people living with HIV who will need antiretroviral therapy.
Professor Peter Piot, co-chair of the commission and lead author of the report, said it was time to face the "hard truth" that if the current rate of new HIV infections continues "merely sustaining the major efforts we already have in place will not be enough to stop deaths from AIDS increasing within five years in many countries".
“Expanding sustainable access to treatment is essential, but we will not treat ourselves out of the AIDS epidemic," he said. "We must also reinvigorate HIV prevention efforts, particularly among populations at highest risk, while removing legal and societal discrimination.”
The report said that by 2013 the number of new HIV infections had decreased by 38 per cent since 2001 to 2.1 million, and the number of AIDS-related deaths decreased by 35 per cent since 2005 to 1.5 million.
~ www.thelancet.com/commissions/defeating-aids-advancing-global-health
– DAVID ADAMS
