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AIDS targets of millennium development goal exceeded: UNAIDS

Xinhua, July 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The world has exceeded the AIDS target of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) -- halting and reversing the spread of HIV -- and is on track to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said a report on Tuesday.

The report released Tuesday by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), titled "How AIDS changed everything", said the global response to HIV has averted 30 million new HIV infections and nearly 8 million AIDS-related deaths since 2000, when the MDGs were set.

"The world has delivered on halting and reversing the AIDS epidemic," said Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations, "Now we must commit to ending the AIDS epidemic as part of the Sustainable Development Goals."

The report said that between 2000 and 2014, new HIV infections dropped from 3.1 million to 2 million, a reduction of 35 percent. Had the world stood back to watch the epidemic unfold, the annual number of new HIV infections would likely have risen to around six million by 2014.

In 2014, the report showed that 83 countries, which account for 83 percent of all people living with HIV, have halted or reversed their epidemics, including countries with major epidemics, such as India, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

In 2000, AIDS was a death sentence. People who became infected with HIV had just a few years to live and the vast majority of children born with the virus died before they reached their fifth birthday.

However, the pace of antiretroviral therapy scale-up increased, ensuring more people remained alive and well. By 2005, AIDS-related deaths began to reverse, falling by 41 percent from 2005 to 2014.

In 2014, 40 percent of all people living with HIV, roughly 15 million people, had access to antiretroviral therapy, a 22-fold increase over the past 14 years.

The report said ensuring access to antiretroviral therapy for 15 million people was an achievement deemed impossible 15 years ago. In 2000, fewer than one percent of people living with HIV in low and middle-income countries had access to treatment, as the sky-high prices of medicines -- around 10,000 U.S. dollars per person per year -- put them out of reach.

"Fifteen years ago there was a conspiracy of silence. AIDS was a disease of 'others' and treatment was for the rich and not for the poor," said Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, "If we frontload investments and fast-track our efforts over the next five years, we will end the AIDS epidemic by 2030." Endit