10:30 PM
McGhori
The number of new cases of AIDS is leveling off with the number of people infected with the HIV virus having remained unchanged since 2007.
The number of new cases of AIDS is leveling off with the number of people infected with the HIV virus having remained unchanged since 2007. The information comes from a new report recently released by the United Nations.
According to the joint United Nations program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), the number of new HIV infections appears to have stabilized with approximately 2.7 million occurring last year, which is about the same number of cases reported in the three years prior. The latest numbers serve as confirmation of findings released by UNAIDS earlier this year.
In 2010, the number of AIDS-related deaths reported was 1.8 million, reflecting a decline from 1.9 million deaths in 2009.
About 34 million people were living with the AIDS-causing HIV virus by the end of last year. Although this is actually a slight increase from prior years, this is likely due to an increased survival rate among those having the illness.
But the threat of AIDS has by no means been diminished, having no method for preventing the deadly disease that has no cure.
Although the decline in the number of cases of HIV reflects a positive trend, millions who suffer from the disease continue to go untreated and reportedly, donations have declined amidst a struggling economy.
While for North America and Western Europe, the continued outbreak “remains stubbornly steady,” according to U.N. report, southern Africa continues to suffer the worst. Although the peak of infection occurred in 1997, following a drop of more than 26 percent in the number of new infections, Sub-Saharan Africa still accounted for 70 percent of the world’s new infections last year.
In addition, the number of new infections of HIV has soared by 250 percent in Eastern Europe and central Asia over the last decade, mainly due shared needles among drug addicts.
The strategic goal of UNAIDS is to achieve a rate of zero new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, as well as zero discrimination. Critics say that while the goals are admirable, these goals are unattainable. They point out that total elimination of the disease is highly unlikely.
UNAIDS deputy executive director Dr. Paul De Lay, said that he recognized the goal of elimination of infection as “more of a vision for the future,” pointing out that success would require a method of prevention, such as a vaccine, and that the development of such an effective tool could take decades.
For now, De Lay noted that the U.N. will aim their efforts at more aggressive prevention and treatment, including earlier intervention for those infected with HIV. In the future, the group may focus on providing medication to uninfected individuals at high risk for the virus.
The World Health Organization is currently considering ways to counsel countries in the midst of major epidemics regarding methods of prevention, including the provision of drugs to such high-risk people as injection drug addicts, gay men, and prostitutes. However, giving AIDS drugs to healthy people has its downside. Those who take these medications can suffer serious side effects, and the use of the drugs may also promote drug resistance.
Meanwhile, for those already infected, the report said that low and middle income countries have been experiencing a surge in the number of people getting access to antiretroviral therapy since 2009, and that these treatments are significantly impacting the rate of new infections. The leveling off of new cases of HIV is a positive move forward, and UNAIDS remains optimistic in working toward further diminishment of the AIDS-causing virus.
Posted in: HEALTH
