UNAIDS on Monday reported that the Caribbean has made significant progress towards meeting several targets that were set to reduce the spread of HIV/ AIDS.
According to a UNAIDS report, in 2000, the global community agreed to work towards meeting several health and development objectives by 2015.
Through Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Six, countries aimed to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/ AIDS, as well as to achieve universal access to treatment for HIV/ AIDS for all those who need it.
Ten 2015 targets were also set by United Nations member states in the 2011 UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. These include reducing sexual transmission, eliminating new infections in children, increasing treatment access, eliminating gender inequalities, eliminating stigma and discrimination, and closing the resource gap for HIV.
New infections
According to UNAIDS, the annual number of new infections continues to decline. In fact, the Caribbean has experienced the sharpest reduction in new infections since 2001 (49 per cent).
“Caribbean coverage of services to prevent HIV transmission from pregnant women to their children is among the highest in the world at more than 90 per cent. Additionally, the region continues to have one of the highest rates of antiretroviral treatment coverage (72 per cent). However, in order to accelerate progress to 2015 and beyond, certain issues require urgent attention,” the UNAIDS report stated.
The report finds that progress has been slow in ensuring the respect of human rights, securing access to HIV services for people most at risk of infection and in preventing violence against women and girls – a key factor in vulnerability to HIV. Gender inequality, punitive laws, and discriminatory actions are continuing to hamper national responses to HIV and concerted efforts are needed to address these persistent obstacles to the scale-up of HIV services for people most in need.
“We can get to zero new cases of HIV, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero stigma and discrimination, if we learn to talk about sex and sexuality and refuse to discriminate because of difference,” said UNAIDS Caribbean Regional Support Team Director, Dr Ernest Massiah.
Another key challenge is how prevention, care, and treatment services will be funded in the future, given widespread slowdowns in economic growth and an overall reduction in donor funding.
The report stated that concerted efforts are needed to address these persistent obstacles.
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, The Dominican Republic, Guyana, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines are among the countries with high dependency on external financing for treatment.
Dramatic acceleration
UNAIDS said as world leaders prepare to meet at the UN General Assembly to review progress towards the MDGs, its new report shows dramatic acceleration towards 2015 global targets on HIV. In 2012, an estimated 35.3 million people globally were living with HIV. New HIV infections were estimated at 2.3 million in 2012, a 33 per cent reduction since 2001.
New HIV infections among children have been reduced to 260,000 in 2012, a reduction of 52 per cent since 2001.
AIDS-related deaths have also dropped by 30 per cent since the peak in 2005 as access to antiretroviral treatment expands.
By the end of 2012, some 9.7 million people in low- and middle-income countries were accessing antiretroviral therapy, an increase of nearly 20 per cent in just one year.
In 2011, UN member states agreed to a 2015 target of 15 million people accessing HIV treatment.
However, as countries scaled up their treatment coverage and as new evidence emerged showing the HIV prevention benefits of antiretroviral therapy, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has set new HIV treatment guidelines, expanding the total number of people estimated to be in need of treatment by more than 10 million.
Go beyond
“Not only can we meet the 2015 target of 15 million people on HIV treatment – we must also go beyond and have the vision and commitment to ensure no one is left behind,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
Significant results have also been achieved towards meeting the needs of tuberculosis (TB) patients living with HIV, as TB-related deaths among people living with HIV have declined by 36 per cent since 2004.
Despite a flattening in donor funding for HIV, which has remained around the same as 2008 levels, domestic spending has increased, accounting for 53 per cent of resources in 2012.
The total global resources available for HIV in 2012 was estimated at US$ 18.9 billion, US$ 3-5 billion short of the US$ 22-24 billion estimated to be needed annually by 2015.
