Achieving AIDS-free generation possible with greater prevention by UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé 4:51pm 1st Dec, 2010   Dec 1, 2010    UN urges world not to relent in global fight against AIDS.    The world must not relent in its efforts to roll back theAIDS pandemic, United Nations officials said today, stressing the importance of preventing new infections and deaths.    “Our common goal is clear: universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. We must also work to make the AIDS response sustainable,” Mr. Ban said in his message to mark World AIDS Day, observed annually on 1 December.    “Three decades into this crisis, let us set our sights on achieving the “three zeros” – zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. On this World AIDS Day, let us pledge to work together to realize this vision for all of the world’s people,” he said.    He pointed out that despite the untold suffering and death that AIDS had visited upon mankind, the global community had united to take action and save lives. He called for stronger commitment to efforts to enable the world to reach the first part of Millennium Development Goal 6 – halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV.    Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), noted that the number of new HIV infections and deaths have been reduced by nearly 20 per cent, but lamented that some 30 million people had lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses over the past three decades, while an estimated 10 million people are currently awaiting treatment. “Our hard-won gains are fragile – so our commitment to the AIDS response must remain strong,” Mr. Sidibé said in his message.    The latest UNAIDS report released last week shows that an estimated 2.6 million people became newly infected with HIV, nearly 20 per cent fewer than the 3.1 million people infected in 1999. In 2009, 1.8 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses, nearly one-fifth lower than the 2.1 million people who died in 2004.    According to the report, from 2001 to 2009, the rate of new HIV infections stabilized or decreased by more than 25 per cent in at least 56 countries around the world, including 34 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.    Of the five countries with the largest epidemics in the region, four countries – Ethiopia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe – have reduced rates of new HIV infections while Nigeria’s epidemic has stabilized.    Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), called for the protection of the human rights of those living with HIV/AIDS and urged all sectors to combat discrimination against those infected.    “Working with people living with HIV is critical for an effective HIV response and Member States need to be mindful of the commitments made in the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS to promote better legal and social environments for people to access HIV testing, prevention and treatment,” Ms. Chan said.    She stressed that those affected by the disease are entitled to social services, including education, housing, social security and even asylum. “Ensuring the rights of people living with HIV is good public health practice, by improving the health and well-being of those affected and by making prevention efforts more effective.    “A range of countries have enacted legislation to prevent discrimination against people living with HIV. However, in many cases, there is poor enforcements of such laws and stigmatization of people living with HIV and most-at-risk populations persist,” she added.    Nov 2010    Although 370,000 children are born with HIV each year, achieving an AIDS-free generation is possible if the world steps up efforts to provide universal access to prevention, treatment and social protection, according to a new United Nations report released today.    But attaining this goal depends on reaching the most marginalized members of society, the report – Children and AIDS: Fifth Stocktaking Report 2010 – warns, noting that millions of women and children have fallen through the cracks due to inequities rooted in gender, economic status, geographical location, education level and social status.    “To achieve an AIDS-free generation we need to do more to reach the hardest hit communities,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake said in New York in launching the report, compiled jointly by his agency, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO).    “Every day, nearly 1,000 babies in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV through mother-to-child transmission. Our Fifth Stocktaking Report on Children and AIDS highlights innovations like the Mother Baby Pack that can bring life-saving ARV (antiretroviral drugs) treatment to more mothers and their babies than ever before.”    Such treatment prevents mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). AIDS is one of the leading causes of death among women of reproductive age globally and a major cause of maternal mortality in countries with generalized epidemics. In sub-Saharan Africa, 9 per cent of maternal mortality is attributable to HIV and AIDS.    “Around 370,000 children are born with HIV each year. Each one of these infections is preventable,” UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé said. “We have to stop mothers from dying and babies from becoming infected with HIV. That is why I have called for the virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission by 2015.”    WHO revised its guidelines earlier this year, to ensure quality PMTCT services for HIV-positive pregnant women and their infants. In low- and middle-income countries, 53 per cent of pregnant women living with HIV received ARVs to prevent mother-to-child transmission in 2009 compared to 45 per cent in 2008. One of the most significant increases occurred in eastern and southern Africa, where the proportion jumped 10 percentage points, from 58 per cent in 2008 to 68 per cent in 2009.    “We have strong evidence that elimination of mother-to-child transmission is achievable,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said. “Achieving the goal will require much better prevention among women and mothers in the first place.”    WHO also issued new ARV guidelines for treating infants and children, paving the way for many more children with HIV to be eligible for immediate antiretroviral treatment (ART).    In low- and middle-income countries, the number of children under the age of 15 who received treatment rose from 275,300 in 2008 to 356,400 in 2009. This increase means that 28 per cent of the 1.27 million children estimated to be in need of ART receive it.    Infants are particularly vulnerable to the effects of HIV, which has lent urgency to the global campaign for early infant diagnosis. While the availability of early infant diagnosis services has increased dramatically in many countries, global coverage still remains low, at only 6 per cent in 2009. Without treatment, about half of the infected infants die before their second birthday.    In most parts of the world, new HIV infections are steadily falling or stabilizing. In 2001, an estimated 5.7 million young people aged 15–24 were living with HIV. At the end of 2009, that number fell to 5 million. However, in nine countries – all of them in southern Africa – at least 1 in 20 young people is living with HIV.    Young women still shoulder the greater burden of infection, and in many countries women face their greatest risk of infection before age 25. Worldwide, more than 60 per cent of all young people living with HIV are female. In sub-Saharan Africa, that figure is nearly 70 per cent.    “We need to address gender inequalities, including those that place women and girls at disproportionate risk to HIV and other adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes,” UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova said. “While we are encouraged by a decline in HIV incidence among young people of more than 25 per cent in 15 key countries in sub-Saharan Africa between 2001 and 2009, we must do everything possible to sustain and increase such positive trends in order to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support.”    Adolescents are still becoming infected with HIV because they have neither the knowledge nor the access to services to protect themselves. “We must increase investments in young people’s education and health, including sexual and reproductive health, to prevent HIV infections and advance social protection,” UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said. Visit the related web page
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