Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 20, 2018 News
There were an estimated 310,000 people living with HIV in the Caribbean at the end of 2017. Almost three of four [73 percent] people living with HIV in the region were aware of their status.
Of all people living with HIV, 57 percent were on treatment and 40 percent were virally suppressed. This level of treatment coverage contributed to a 23 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths in the region between 2000 and 2017.
This is according to information contained in the 2018 Global AIDS Update report which was released by the United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS] two days ago.
The report has outlined that to reach the targets that will set the Caribbean on track to end AIDS, the region must close the gaps in testing and treatment. The gap to achieving the testing target—90 percent of all people living with HIV diagnosed – was 54,800 people in 2017. The gap to achieving the second target—90 percent of diagnosed people on treatment—was 74,700 people. And the gap to achieving the third target—90 percent of people on treatment virally suppressed—was 103,000 people.
In 2014, UNAIDS and its partners launched the 90-90-90 targets. The aim was to diagnose 90 percent of all HIV-positive persons, provide anti-retroviral therapy [ART] for 90 percent of those diagnosed and achieve viral suppression for 90 percent of those treated by 2020.
The report outlines that the Caribbean must increase its use of proven strategies such as community-led services for early diagnosis, enrolment in treatment, retention in care and treatment adherence.
It noted, too, that stigma and discrimination and restrictive laws and policies hinder access to services for young people and members of key population communities.
“The Caribbean has to quicken the pace in ensuring that people living with HIV know their status, start treatment and achieve viral suppression,” said Dr. César Núñez, Director of the UNAIDS Latin America and Caribbean Regional Support Team.
He added, “AIDS programmes, Governments, civil society and development partners must work together to ensure that no one is left behind because of their age, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Guyana has been making deliberate inroads to sustain its gains against the disease. The Ministry of Public Health this week announced that it has collaborated with UNAIDS on a three-year HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan to help improve the life expectancy of those affected by the virus. Under the terms of the HIVision2020 covenant, 90 percent of Guyanese living with AIDS must be diagnosed by 2020; a similar number must be receiving their anti-retroviral treatment.
The two sides also estimate that under the pact there must be 90 percent of the people in treatment with “fully suppressed viral load” by 2020.
UNAIDS estimates that the ‘90-90-90’ compact will cost the country some US$5.58M [G$1.14B] to meet the global target.
The 2018 Global AIDS Update has made it clear that around US$ 20.6 billion was available for the AIDS response in 2017—a rise of eight percent since 2016 and 80 percent of the 2020 target set by the United Nations General Assembly.
However, there were no significant new commitments and as a result, the one-year rise in resources is unlikely to continue. Moreover, it has been deduced that achieving the 2020 targets will only be possible if investments from both donor and domestic sources increase.
From townships in southern Africa to remote villages in the Amazon to mega-cities in Asia, the dozens of innovations contained within the pages of the report show that collaboration between health systems and individual communities can successfully reduce stigma and discrimination and deliver services to the vast majority of the people who need them the most.
These innovative approaches continue to drive the solutions needed to achieve the 2020 targets. When combination HIV prevention—including condoms and voluntary medical male circumcision—is pursued at scale, population-level declines in new HIV infections are achieved, the report outlined.
It also highlighted that oral pre-exposure prophylaxis [PrEP] is having an impact, particularly among key populations.
Further, the report states that “offering HIV testing and counselling to family members and the sexual partners of people diagnosed with HIV has significantly improved testing access.”
“For every challenge there is a solution,” said Mr. Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. As such, he underscored that “It is the responsibility of political leaders, national governments and the international community to make sufficient financial investments and establish the legal and policy environments needed to bring the work of innovators to the global scale [since] doing so will create the momentum needed to reach the targets by 2020.”
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