UNAIDS Report: Less Deaths From HIV But Growing Resistance Creates Great Risk

A new report from UNAIDS shows that antiretroviral therapy is now accessed by 18.2 million people living with HIV, and fewer people are dying from the virus infection. However, there is stalled progress on HIV prevention among adults, and growing antiretroviral drug resistance among people living with HIV over a long time.

The UNAIDS report [pdf] released today is titled, “Get on the Fast-Track,” and addresses the life-cycle approach to HIV. It looks into differences of prevention, treatments and access in different ages.

In the foreword of the report, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé said, “With no reduction in the global number of new HIV infections among adults in the past five years, and rising numbers of new infections in some regions of the world, we need to realize that if there is a resurgence in new HIV infections now, the epidemic will become impossible to control.”

He underlined the importance of drug resistance as a major threat, not just for antiretroviral medicines but also for antibiotics and antituberculous medicines.

“We need to make sure the medicines we have today are put to best use, and accelerate and expand the search for new treatments, diagnostics, vaccines and an HIV cure,” he said.

Low and middle-income countries have answered the challenge of broader ownership and wider accountability to meet the investment needs of the response, the report said.

“In the past five years, domestic investment in the AIDS responses of these countries has increased by 46%, reaching US$ 10.8 billion in 2015,” it stated.

However, a sizable investment gap remains, said the report and reaching the fast-track targets agreed upon by the United Nations General Assembly will require an additional US$7 billion annually by 2020.