UNAIDS Global AIDS Update
Context
The 2024 UNAIDS Global AIDS Update, titled “The Urgency of Now: AIDS at a Crossroads,” highlights the status of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the global response to it.
- It aims to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Relevance:
GS – 2 (Health)
Key Highlights
- The report underscores the potential to end AIDS by 2030, emphasizing the necessity of addressing inequalities, increasing access to prevention and treatment, and ensuring sustainable resources.
- There has been a 39% reduction in new HIV infections globally since 2010, with sub-Saharan Africa achieving the steepest decline (56%).
- In 2023, fewer people acquired HIV than at any point since the late 1980s, and almost 31 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART).
- AIDS-related deaths have decreased to their lowest level since the peak in 2004, largely due to increased access to ART.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV):
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that targets CD4, a type of white blood cell (T cells) responsible for detecting anomalies and infections in the body’s immune system.
- Upon entering the body, HIV replicates and destroys CD4 cells, severely compromising the immune system.
- Once contracted, HIV remains in the body indefinitely, leading to a significant reduction in CD4 count.
- In healthy individuals, CD4 count ranges between 500-1600, whereas in infected individuals, it can plummet to as low as 200.
- Stem cells are specialized cells capable of self-renewal and differentiation into various cell types required by the body. They possess two unique properties: the ability to divide repeatedly to generate new cells and the capacity to transform into different cell types as needed. Stem cells exist in different forms throughout the body and play crucial roles in tissue regeneration and repair. However, cancer and its treatments can damage hematopoietic stem cells, which are responsible for producing blood cells.
- Symptoms: Once HIV converts into AIDS , the symptoms are unexplained fatigue, fever, sores around genitals or neck, pneumonia etc.
Regional Disparities:
- Significant progress in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Rising numbers of new HIV infections in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa.
- For the first time, more new HIV infections occurred outside sub-Saharan Africa than within it.
Key Affected Groups:
- High risks of HIV infection among sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people, and people in prisons due to inadequate prevention programs and persistent stigma and discrimination.
- Community-led interventions are critical but often underfunded and unrecognized.
Prevention and Treatment Gaps:
- Shortcomings in HIV prevention efforts, particularly in access to services like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and harm reduction for people who inject drugs.
- About 9.3 million people living with HIV are not receiving ART, with children and adolescents particularly affected.
UNAIDS
- UNAIDS is a unique cosponsored Joint Programme in the United Nations system, drawing on the experience and expertise of 11 United Nations system Cosponsors and including civil society representation on its governing body.
- Leadership Role: Leading the global effort to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.
India’s Efforts to Prevent HIV
- HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017
- Access to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)
- Memorandum of Understanding (MoU): Signed in 2019 for enhanced HIV/AIDS outreach and to reduce stigma and discrimination.
- Project Sunrise: Launched in 2016 to tackle rising HIV prevalence in northeastern states, especially among people injecting drugs.
- Targets: Aimed at achieving UNAIDS’s 90-90-90 targets and ending AIDS by 2030.
- International Initiatives
- Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS): Leading the global effort to end AIDS by 2030.
- UN Political Declaration on Ending AIDS (2016): Aiming to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
- WHO’s “Treat All” Guidance (2015): Recommends treating all individuals as soon as possible after HIV infection and diagnosis.
- Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026: Focuses on ending inequalities and AIDS.
