Montreal (AP) – According to a UN report, the fight against AIDS has stalled worldwide. In the past two years – also in view of the corona pandemic and other crises – significantly fewer funds than before were available to fight HIV and AIDS, according to a report published on Wednesday by the UN program for the fight against AIDS ( UNAIDS). In some regions where the number of new infections had previously fallen, they are now rising again; Millions of lives are threatened.
Around 1.5 million people worldwide were newly infected with the HI virus last year. This means that the number of new infections has still fallen compared to the previous year, but only by 3.6 percent – less than at any time since 2016. In Eastern Europe, parts of Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, among others, the number of new infections has increased. Progress has stalled in East and South Africa. There has been a decline in infections, for example, in West and Central Africa and in the Caribbean.
If HIV infection is not treated, the virus weakens the immune system to such an extent that life-threatening illnesses occur. One then speaks of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
“The new data confirms our worst fears – that the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic and other crises have slowed the fight against AIDS,” said Tom Hart, head of development organization One. “The progress of two decades was stopped abruptly in just two years.”
More than 38 million people infected
In relative terms, the number of new infections among young women and adolescents was particularly high, the report said. Every two minutes there was a new infection in this group in 2021. In total, more than 38 million people worldwide are now living with HIV. Around 650,000 people died last year as a result of AIDS. “These numbers show that the global fight against AIDS is in jeopardy,” said UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima.
From Friday on, thousands of experts and interested parties want to discuss ways and strategies in the fight against the epidemic at the 24th World AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada. In 2020, the conference only took place digitally due to the corona pandemic, this time there will also be digital offers for the meeting in Montreal. The conference, which was held for the first time in 1985, is considered the world’s largest scientific meeting on the subject of AIDS.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220727-99-171944/6