Today is World AIDS Day.
The first WHO (World Health Organization) World AIDS Day public health campaign was celebrated in 1988, 30 years ago. The theme for this year’s campaign is an explanation “Why the HIV epidemic is not over”. Indeed, the statistics are still staggering.
- Since the late 80s, 70 million people in the world have contracted HIV, 35 million people have died.
- Today, about 37 million are living with HIV, 22 million are receiving treatment
- In 2017, 1.8 million people were newly infected.
- Approx. 1 million people are still dying each year from HIV-related causes (940,000 in 2017).
- Sub-Saharan Africa remains the area with the highest infection rates, estimated at 25.7 million in 2017.
- Every minute, every day, a girl between the ages of 15 and 24 is infected with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- 1 in 4 people who have HIV don’t know.
- There is no cure for HIV.
- Effective ART (anti-retroviral therapy) drugs exist which can control viral loads, enabling long, healthy and productive lives.
- The costs of these treatments are still largely prohibitive.
- Between 2000 and 2017, HIV infections dropped 36% and HIV-related deaths dropped 38%, with 11.4 million lives saved through ART drugs.
References
Keith Haring
Keith Haring Foundation
WHO – HIV/AIDS – Key Facts
WHO – World AIDS Day 2018
http://www.who.int/who-campaigns/world-aids-day/world-aids-day-2018
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