Secretary-general launches progress report ahead of U.N. high-level meeting in June
NAIROBI (AlertNet) - Discrimination, stigma and gender inequality threaten to undermine progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, 30 years after the deadly virus took its first toll, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday.
Since the beginning of the epidemic - recognised as June 1981 - more than 60 million people have been infected with HIV and nearly 30 million have died of HIV-related illnesses, according to the world body.
The human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS can be controlled with cocktails of drugs, but there is no cure as yet.
Three decades on, experts say global HIV incidence has declined and access to treatment has expanded, owing largely to a global movement to curb the disease.
"Thirty years ago, AIDS was a death sentence. Today, people are living, striving and thriving with HIV," Ban said at the Nairobi launch of a progress report on the pandemic.
The report's recommendations will be reviewed by leaders at the U.N. General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS set for June 8-10 in New York.
"This progress is the result of patient and unrelenting efforts by both partnerships between governments, the medical community, activists and international organisations," he said.
Ban's report said the number of newly infected people dropped by 19 percent in 2009 from a decade earlier, with some 10 "high-prevalence" countries reducing infection rates among young people by 25 percent.
Access to anti-retroviral therapy has also improved, with some six million patients in low-income countries estimated to be under treatment.
'ZERO, ZERO, ZERO'
But Ban warned of dangers that might curtail further progress.
"These accomplishments, while promising, are insufficient and in jeopardy," he said.
"Stigma, discrimination and gender equality continue to undermine efforts to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support."
Ban outlined ways for countries to meet a target of "zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths" by 2015, as set by UNAIDS last year - including harnessing the energy of young people for "an HIV prevention revolution".
He urged states to work towards halving sexual transmission of HIV and tuberculosis deaths among people living with HIV, preventing new infections among injecting drug users, and ensuring that 13 million people receive treatment.
Ban also called for a reduction of 50 percent in the number of countries with restrictions on HIV-positive people, as well as ensuring children who are orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS stay in school, and eliminating transmission from mothers to children.
"By working together to execute these recommendations, we can achieve these goals by 2015, and take a unified step towards a world of zero, zero and zero," he said.
With international funding for HIV assistance declining for the first time in 2009, the report encouraged countries to prioritise funding for HIV programmes, including low- and middle-income countries that can cover their own HIV-related costs.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the world hardest hit by HIV and AIDS, there were 1.3 million AIDS-related deaths in 2009 and 1.8 million people became newly infected with HIV.
(Editing by Richard Lough and Megan Rowling)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
