[hivaids-twg] Fwd: UN REPORTS PROMISING TREND IN HIV INFECTION RATES, RECORD NUMBERS LIVING WITH AIDS

[HIV-TWG Moderator]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: UNNews <UNNews at un.org>
Date: Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 10:05 PM
Subject: UN REPORTS PROMISING TREND IN HIV INFECTION RATES, RECORD NUMBERS
LIVING WITH AIDS
To: news9 at secint00.un.org


UN REPORTS PROMISING TREND IN HIV INFECTION RATES, RECORD NUMBERS LIVING
WITH AIDS
New York, Nov 24 2009 10:05AM
The trend in new HIV infections around the world has slowed notably over the
past eight years as more people than ever before are able to live with the
disease, according to a United Nations report released today.

Giving partial credit to a rise in the number of people benefiting from HIV
prevention programmes and receiving antiretroviral treatments, the 2009 AIDS
Epidemic Update noted that new infections have been slashed by 17 per cent
globally and that some 33.4 million people are living with HIV as
AIDS-related deaths dropped by 10 per cent in the last five years.

The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS
(<"http://www.unaids.org/en/default.asp">UNAIDS)
and the World Health Organization (<"http://www.who.int/en/">WHO) <"
http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2009/2009_epidemic_update_en.pdf">report
said that in sub-Saharan Africa 15 per cent, around 400,000, fewer people
contracted the deadly disease in 2008.

“The good news is that we have evidence that the declines we are seeing are
due, at least in part, to HIV prevention,” <"
http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/EpiUpdate/EpiUpdArchive/2009/default.asp">said
Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibé.

“However, the findings also show that prevention programming is often off
the mark and that if we do a better job of getting resources and programmes
to where they will make most impact, quicker progress can be made and more
lives saved,” added Mr. Sidibé.

UNAIDS and WHO estimate that since the availability of effective treatments
in 1996 and some 2.9 million lives have been saved.

“International and national investment in HIV treatment scale-up has yielded
concrete and measurable results,” <"
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2009/hiv_aids_20091124/en/index.html">said
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

“We cannot let this momentum wane,” added Dr. Chan. “Now is the time to
redouble our efforts, and save many more lives.”

The joint report said that antiretroviral therapy has also made a large
difference for children as more HIV-positive mothers gain access to
treatment, preventing around 200,000 new infections among children since
2001.

In Botswana, where treatment coverage is 80 per cent, AIDS-related deaths
have fallen by over 50 per cent over the past five years and the number of
children newly orphaned is also coming down as parents are living longer.

Another of the reports findings points to the high impact on AIDS where HIV
prevention and treatment programmes have been integrated with other health
and social welfare services.

“AIDS isolation must end,” said Mr. Sidibé. “Half of all maternal deaths in
Botswana and South Africa are due to HIV. This tells us that we must work
for a unified health approach bringing maternal and child health and HIV
programmes as well as tuberculosis programmes together to work to achieve
their common goal.”

The report also warns that prevention programmes must keep pace with shifts
in the epidemic, such the spread of the disease in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia to the sexual partners of people who inject drugs and not just
the users. Similarly in parts of Asia an epidemic once characterized by
transmission through sex work and injecting drug use is now increasingly
affecting heterosexual couples.

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