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An AIDS report card

The international community makes painfully slow progress

Published on Wednesday, Jun 04, 2008

An HIV/AIDS diagnosis need not be the inevitable sentence of death it was some 20 years ago. Among the important contributors to the extended survival rate is increased access to cheap antiretroviral drug treatments. For that reason, the long-term goal of the U.N. agencies with primary responsibilities for international health is to ensure the drug treatments are affordable and accessible — as a human right — to all who need them.

An interim target, set in 2003, called for making the treatments available to 3 million HIV/AIDS patients by 2005 (the ''3 by 5'' initiative) in countries with low incomes and high rates of the viral infection. A yearly review released this week by UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and UNICEF reported encouraging but painfully slow progress in 2007, the good news tempered by grave challenges.

The death rate continues to decline, but nearly 2.5 million new infections were recorded last year. The 3 by 5 target has been met, but two years after the target date. HIV testing and counseling have increased significantly in many countries. Yet surveys suggest the majority of infected people are unaware of their status. Between 2004 and 2007, the cost of most antiretroviral therapies in poor countries dropped 30 percent to 64 percent. But as patients live longer, the funding must rise as well, an estimated $41 billion required by 2015 to meet the needs.

An estimated 33.2 million people worldwide live with HIV, the majority of them in sub-Sahara Africa and Asia. To reach them all early enough is an enormous task that demands an enduring commitment.

An HIV/AIDS diagnosis need not be the inevitable sentence of death it was some 20 years ago. Among the important contributors to the extended survival rate is increased access to cheap antiretroviral drug treatments. For that reason, the long-term goal of the U.N. agencies with primary responsibilities for international health is to ensure the drug treatments are affordable and accessible — as a human right — to all who need them.

Get the full article here.


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