The fight against HIV, which had made significant progress in the last decade, has slowed down due to the appearance of Covid-19, the World Health Organization warned on Tuesday, calling for the simultaneous fight against these two pandemics.
Many countries have lagged behind international targets “and the difficulties associated with Covid-19 have exacerbated the situation,” the World Health Organization said.
The global goal is to end AIDS, to stop being a threat to global health, by 2030.
According to the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (ICASA), currently being held in South Africa, only nine countries are well on their way to achieving the goal: Botswana, Cape Verde, Kenya , Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
“The face of HIV is still overwhelmingly that of a black woman,” South African Health Minister Joe Faala said in a speech at the start of the conference on Monday.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to two-thirds (67%) of people living with HIV, according to the UN, and women and girls account for 63% of new infections. With 7.8 million cases, South Africa is the most affected country in the world.
Covid-19 “has made the fight against HIV more difficult, but one virus can not overpower another,” warned Dr Machidiso Moeti, director of the WHO Africa.
The number of new infections had dropped by 43% in the last decade and the number of deaths had dropped by almost half. Today, 37.7 million people live with the virus, according to the UN. In 2020, 680,000 people died of AIDS-related disease.
“If governments do not accelerate, increase resources and commit to strengthening their countries’ fragile health systems, we will not be able to cross the finish line,” Dr. Moeti warned.
In 40 years, AIDS has killed 36.3 million people, according to the UN.
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