Staff Writer – Archi
The 2011 witnessed a worldwide decrease in both number of new HIV infections and number of AIDS-related deaths, a United Nations report released this week said.
An estimated 2.5 million people were newly-infected with HIV in 2011, some 100,000 fewer than in 2010 and 700,000 fewer than in 2001, according to the World AIDS Day Report 2012 of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS.
Half of all reductions in new HIV infections in the last two years have been among newborn children, which showed that elimination of new infections in children is possible, said the report.
The report also highlighted that a more-than-50-per cent reduction in the rate of new HIV infections since 2001 has been achieved across 25 low and middle-income countries, more than half of which are in Africa, the region most-affected by HIV.
In some of the countries which have the highest HIV prevalence in the world, rates of new HIV infections have been cut dramatically since 2001 — by 73 per cent in Malawi, 71 per cent in Botswana, 68 per cent in Namibia and 58 percent in Zambia, according to the report.
The rate of new HIV infections in India has dropped by an encouraging 57 per cent over the last decade thanks to increased domestic spending towards the AIDS response.
Four countries that account for a large number of people living with HIV in the South Asian region — India, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea and Thailand — reduced new HIV infections by more than 50 per cent.
Practice safe sex at all times. Photo courtesy tumblr.com
In sub-Saharan Africa, a record 2.3 million people had access to treatment. China has also increased the number of people on HIV treatment by nearly 50 per cent in 2011.
“Exceptional leadership is coming from the world’s fastest-growing emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). Together, they contribute to more than half of all domestic spending on AIDS in low and middle-income countries. Their momentum is unparalleled, having increased domestic public spending by more than 122 per cent between 2006 and 2011,” the report said.
India has committed to increase domestic funding to more than 90 per cent in its next phase of the AIDS response.
“These fast growing economies have the potential to support others in the region, as well as exert leadership and influence on the AIDS response, both locally and globally,” the report added.
With changing times and changing sexual preferences, new strategy is needed to ensure services reach those who get infected through men having sex with men, as the rate is growing in China.
There is only a 30 per cent gap in resources remaining for funding the AIDS response by 2015, said the report.
The most import thing now is to mobilize political leadership and develop new strategies to maximize the use of resources that have already been invested in combating the epidemic.
