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AIDS: fall in infections in the United States, UN targets exceeded ... what the epidemic figures say

2021-06-04T16:36:02.417Z


Forty years after its discovery, AIDS continues to wreak havoc ... But the figures of recent publications show signs in


There are birthdays that we would take care not to celebrate.

On June 5, 1981, the first mention of "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" appeared in an American scientific journal.

Forty years since this dreaded virus, known as AIDS, was discovered.

A symbolic date that also highlights encouraging signs in the world.

First in the United States, where the number of new HIV infections fell by 73% between the peak of the 1980s and 2019. “The drop is due to the work and collaboration for decades between scientists, patients, activists , and population ”, welcomed the director of the Centers for the prevention and fight against diseases (CDC) Rochelle Walensky in a press release, after the publication of this study.

According to the text, the annual number of new infections rose from 20,000 in 1981 to a peak of 130,400 in 1984 and 1985. The figure then stabilized between 1991 and 2007, with around 50,000 to 58,000 new infections annually. , then reduced in recent years, with 34,800 infections in 2019. But enthusiasm is quickly showered by the huge disparities that have also emerged: 29 to 41% of new infections were among black people and 16 to 29% for Hispanic people.

Development of access to healthcare

“In the United States, we are in a more complicated system of access to care. Without insurance, people find it difficult to stay on treatment for long, ”notes Florence Thune, Managing Director of Sidaction. “There are strong disparities, whether geographic - we see that Eastern Europe and Asia are the bad pupils - or populations. In the United States, these two factors intersect. And there are also the consequences of repressive texts in relation to certain categories of populations, ”such as drug users or prostitutes, she recalls. The more isolated these populations, the more likely they are to be exposed to HIV.

The figures have moved fastest on the declining side of mortality: at least 40 countries are on track to achieve a 90% reduction in AIDS-related mortality by the year 2030, including including nine countries located in East and South Africa, welcomed the UNAIDS, the specialized agency of the UN.

How did we arrive at these results?

With resources, but still insufficient, according to Florence Thune.

“There have been national systems to facilitate access to treatment and policies that have promoted access to testing,” she explains.

The development of preventive treatment, PrEP, has made it possible in particular to reduce deaths.

“You still have to have access to it,” says the manager.

To read also 40 years of AIDS: "I am alive, but a part of me is dead", testifies Maxime, survivor of the epidemic

"A statement of failure"

The report does not give statistics by country, but shows that AIDS-related deaths have declined worldwide since 2010. According to our calculations based on data from the World Health Organization (WHO), in South Africa, the number of people living with HIV increased by 134% between 2000 and 2019. But at the same time, the number of AIDS-related deaths has been halved.

Sign that the country is able to better treat the disease.

In Bolivia, deaths from HIV fell 87% between 2000 and 2019 and the number of people living with the disease fell by 13%.

In Zimbabwe, which has 81% fewer HIV-related deaths, 9.5% of the population is living with AIDS.

In 2000, they were almost 13%.

Eight other countries, such as Burundi, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Peru, Kenya and Switzerland also saw their death toll fall by more than 80% over the period.

"What UNAIDS translates is that if we put in the means, the objectives could be realistic and we could put an end to the AIDS epidemic, so it is first and foremost an observation of failure", tempers Florence Thune.

Because everything is far from rosy: in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, infections have jumped over the same period. They also rose slightly in the Middle East / North Africa and Latin America. "UNAIDS had set a target of 500,000 infections in 2020, there were 1.7 million," resumes Florence Thune. We are still faced with a deadly disease and we have effective tools: without a vaccine or an antidote, we see that it works. But it is often annoying because we know that we could improve the situation ”.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-06-04

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