PHM-Exch> UN records massive rise in number of people receiving HIV treatment

[Claudio Schuftan]

> http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35355&Cr=UNAIDS&Cr1=
>
> UN records massive rise in number of people receiving HIV treatment
>
> HIV/AIDS patient lies in bed at a clinic
>
19 July 2010 – The number of people receiving life-saving HIV treatment has
> soared by more than 1 million to 5.2 million, marking the largest jump ever,
> but donor contributions for AIDS efforts have flatlined because of the
> global economic downturn, two new United Nations reports have found.
>
> The sharp rise last year in the number of people receiving treatment “is an
> extremely encouraging development,” said<http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2010/hiv_treament_20100719/en/index.html>Hiroki
> Nakatani, Assistant Director-General for HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria and
> Neglected Tropical Diseases of the UN World Health Organization (WHO<http://www.who.int/topics/hiv_aids/en/index.html>),
> which released one of the two new studies today.
>
> At the global XVIII International AIDS Conference under way in Vienna, the
> agency also appealed for earlier treatment for people living with HIV before
> they become ill due to their weakened immune systems.
>
> “Starting treatment gives us an opportunity to enable people living with
> HIV to stay healthier and live longer,” said Gottfried Hirnschall, Director
> of HIV/AIDS at WHO.
>
> HIV-related deaths can be reduced by 20 per cent between 2010 and 2015 if
> guidelines for treatment are broadly implemented, helping to prevent
> infections such as tuberculosis, the number one cause of death for people
> with HIV. WHO noted that deaths from TB can be curbed by up to 90 per cent
> if people living with both HIV and TB begin treatment earlier.
>
> Despite the surge in number of people receiving treatment, the Joint UN
> Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS <http://www.unaids.org/en/default.asp>)
> found in a new report that global support for AIDS efforts have flattened as
> the world experienced a large-scale recession.
>
> Last year, the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, the European
> Commission (EC) and other donor governments gave $7.6 billion for AIDS
> relief in developing countries, down slightly from $7.7 billion in 2008.
>
> “Reductions in investment on AIDS programmes are hurting the AIDS
> response,” Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said.
>
> “At a time when we are seeing results in HIV prevention and treatment, we
> must scale up, not scale down,” he stressed.
>
> The UNAIDS report, released jointly with the Kaiser Family Foundation
> (KFF), found that 2009 funding levels ended a run of annual double-digit
> percentage increases in donor support since 2002.
>
> Addressing the start of the international AIDS conference in Vienna
> yesterday, Mr. Sidibé spotlighted the strides made in the fight against HIV.
>
> “The conspiracy of silence has been broken,” he said, adding that 5 million
> people “are alive because of treatment.” Additionally, infection rates have
> dropped 17 per cent since 2001.
>
> But the UNAIDS chief expressed that he is “scared by what I see today,”
> with prevention models not having the anticipated results, some governments
> cracking down on vulnerable groups and costs on the rise.
>
> “Meanwhile, 10 million people are waiting for any treatment at all,” he
> said. “We have evidence that in too many countries, too many clinics that
> gave people treatment and hope now have to turn people away, including
> pregnant women who risk passing the virus to their babies.”
>
> Also voicing his concern over obstacles in conquering the epidemic was
> Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who underlined in a video message<http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=4686> that
> “we must ensure that our recent gains are not reversed.”
>
> He called for additional resources in areas that have “been neglected for
> far too long,” especially maternal health, and highlighted the strong ties
> between AIDS and efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs<http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/>),
> eight anti-poverty targets with a 2014 deadline.
>
> “So let us say again,” Mr. Ban emphasized. “No new HIV infections. No more
> discrimination. No more AIDS-related deaths. Health and development for
> all.”
>
> He told conference participants that universal access to HIV treatment
> “must remain our beacon.”
>
> For its part, the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM<http://www.unifem.org/>)
> underscored that the voices of HIV-positive women are largely absent from
> the decision-making process in the HIV/AIDS response.
>
> The agency said in a new report<http://www.unifem.org/materials/item_detail.php?ProductID=177> that
> nearly half of the 31.3 million people living with HIV in the world are
> women, but their proportion is increasing.
>
> Although women are often on the front line of the epidemic and are among
> those most affected, their engagement in finding solutions is restricted due
> to gender norms, the lack of access to information, illiteracy and the
> burden they bear of caregiving and multiple responsibilities in the home.
>
> “Through our work on the ground we have repeatedly heard the voices of
> women as they provide concrete examples of what can work on the ground in
> preventing or reducing the epidemic,” said Inés Alberdi, UNIFEM’s Executive
> Director.
>
> The report lays out a roadmap for government, donors, civil society and
> others to ensure women’s participation, including monitoring the full and
> active participation of people living with HIV, with special attention to
> women living with the virus.
>
> The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF <http://www.unicef.org/>) has found that an
> underground HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is intensifying
> at an alarming pace, fuelled by drug use, high-risk sexual behaviour and
> high levels of social stigma.
>
> In a new publication, the agency found that marginalized young people are
> exposed daily to multiple risks, including drug use, commercial sex and
> other forms of exploitation and abuse, putting them at much higher risk of
> contracting HIV. The region is home to 3.7 million injecting drug users,
> almost one quarter of the world’s total, and for many, initiation into drug
> use begins in adolescence.
>
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