The recent UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2016 reveals that the worldwide scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is on a fast-track trajectory and has surpassed global expectations. By the end of 2015, global ART coverage had reached 46% of those affected by the disease.
In eastern and southern Africa, ART coverage increased from 24% in 2010 to 54% in 2015, highlighted as the greatest global gains in the world’s most affected region.
Kenya increased its treatment coverage by more than 25% with about 900,000 people on ART, the second largest HIV/AIDS treatment program in Africa after South Africa (3.4M).
These gains in treatment are largely responsible for a global decline of 26% in HIV/AIDS related mortalities since 2010, from an estimated 1.5 million to 1.1 million.
Antiretroviral therapy coverage and number of AIDS-related deaths, global 2000-2015 | Source: UNAIDS 2016
Persistent Challenges
Despite the enormous gains in combating HIV/AIDS, a number of challenges still remain on the path towards ending AIDS. These include:
- Regional disparities in the advancement towards ending AIDS
- Complex and varied social, structural and economic dynamics within countries accounting for the uneven geographical distribution of HIV
- Harmful gender norms and inequalities, insufficient access to education and sexual and reproductive health services, poverty, food insecurity and violence, still at the root of the increased risk of HIV among young women and adolescent girls.
- Key populations, who are at a high risk of infection, are still left behind in the design and delivery of HIV prevention and treatment programs in many countries where they are stigmatised and criminalised.
- General discrimination of people living with HIV
Game Plan to Ending AIDS
The positive achievements shown above of the increase in ART uptake and subsequent reduction in AIDS-related deaths, places a stamp on the effectiveness of a fast-track approach towards ending AIDS. With broad leadership and continued financial commitment, the end of AIDS can be seen.
However, there is still more that needs to be done. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that approximately 54% of people living with HIV are in need of treatment, many of who do not know their HIV status.
Apart from identification and treatment, a similar approach needs to be adopted in HIV prevention activities to stop new infections across the globe.
At a meeting ahead of the 2016 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé called for the investment of a quarter of global HIV resources in effective prevention.
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United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health, Dr Cleopa Mailu is leading a delegation of HIV/AIDS health experts including National AIDS Control Council (NACC) Director, Dr Nduku Kilonzo to the UN meeting in New York.
UNAIDS will be leading this three-day meeting whose primary aim will be to focus the world’s attention on the importance of a Fast-Track approach to the AIDS response over the next five years.
The UNAIDS Fast-Track approach aims to achieve ambitious targets by 2020, including:
- Fewer than 500,000 people newly infected with HIV
- Fewer than 500,000 people dying from AIDS-related causes
- Elimination of HIV-related discrimination
These targets are in line with the global commitment for ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
Sources:
- UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2016 Report | http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/documents/2016/Global-AIDS-update-2016
- UNAIDS | unaids.org
- 2016 High Level Meeting on Ending AIDS | hlm2016aids.unaids.org
- Ministry of Health, Kenya | www.health.go.ke
