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A new report to the UN General
Assembly warns that the target of halting and reversing the global HIV/AIDS
epidemic by 2015 may not be met. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s briefing noted
that around $15 billion was available for HIV/AIDS efforts in 2010, but an
estimated $22 billion to $24 billion will be needed by 2015 to meet the UN’s
goal.
“It will be impossible to achieve
global targets without sufficient financial resources,” said Ban, urging the
international community “to now stand up to meet the commitments it has made.”
Approximately 34 million people were
living with HIV/AIDS as of December 2010, about half of them females, the
report says. “Sub-Saharan Africa remains most heavily affected, accounting for
68 percent of all people living with HIV and 70 percent of all people newly
infected in 2010.” While new infections are down from record levels in 1997,
“HIV incidence is rising in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in the Middle East
and North Africa, and in certain Asian countries.”
In 2011, more than 7 million people
with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral
treatment. The UN aims to more than double that figure to 15 million by 2015;
to halve both the number of people infected through sex, to 1 million annually,
and the number infected through injecting drug use, to 120,000 a year; and to
largely eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
