HIV/AIDS remains a cause of concern

WHO report notes rising new infections in some countries

A World Health Organisation (WHO) report released this month underlines continuing threat from HIV, which remains a global public health issue. It has claimed over 40 million lives and is still active in many countries. Some countries are reporting rising new infections, though globally there is a decline. There were an estimated 39 million people living with HIV at the end of 2022, and two-thirds of them were in Africa. A joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS has shown that while mortality has decreased, a life was lost every minute due to AIDS. It has also spoken of the challenges and obstacles in tackling the disease. The unevenness in infections is a cause for concern. Women account for 46% of new infections, and younger people are being infected disproportionately. The burden of infections is even higher among women in poorer countries. The UN has set a goal of ending HIV/AIDS by 2030. But the new trends show that the world may have to wait many more years for it.

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The Covid pandemic affected the campaign against HIV, as was the case with all other diseases. The anti-AIDS machinery is only now back in action in many countries. In fact, there is a spurt in infections after the pandemic subsided. There is a shortage of drugs worldwide and there is increasing resistance to many existing drugs. WHO has prescribed new guidelines and strategies which are useful in countering HIV, and countries will benefit from updating their plans with those. Depending on the nature of spread of HIV in particular societies and the state of public health, every country will need to have specific programmes. These should be flexible enough to accommodate new findings and information. WHO has again underlined the importance of testing as it has noted that as of 2022, an estimated 5.5 million people with HIV still did not know their HIV status. The role of primary health centres and self-testing facilities is important in this respect but the backwardness, poverty and illiteracy in many countries make this difficult.

The economic, social and cultural factors in countries therefore become important in dealing with the AIDS threat, as in the case of other diseases. In the case of AIDS, social stigma is a serious problem. India has the third largest HIV/AIDS-affected population in the world, but the prevalence rate is less than that in many other countries. It has made much progress in the campaign against the disease but has still to go a long way to bring it under control.