AIDS 2024 is being organised by International AIDS Society (IAS) along with the government of Germany and partners. "Germany has a low rate of HIV prevalence. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), as of 2022, an estimated 90,800 people in Germany are living with HIV infection. The number of new HIV infections has been declining, with an estimated 1,900 new HIV infections occurring in the year 2022- a slight increase from 1800 news cases in 2021," said Ministry of Health Germany in an exclusive interview (over email) with CNS. CNS is an official media partner of AIDS 2024.
In 2022, 90% of people with HIV in Germany knew their HIV positive status, 96% of them were on lifesaving antiretroviral therapy treatment, and 96% of those on therapy, were virally suppressed.
In India, "79% of the estimated number of people living with HIV knew their status, 86% of them were on the lifesaving therapy, and 93% of those on therapy have achieved viral suppression," said David Bridger, UNAIDS Country Director in India. But Indian data is not uniform across its 36 states and union territories.
"New HIV infections globally have declined over the last 10 years by 38% which is not enough but at least it is headed in the right direction," says Bridger. He points to the variations in HIV decline rates (or lack of) if we look at regional, sub-regional or national level data. In eastern and southern Africa, rate of new HIV infections has declined by around 60% over the last 10 years whereas this decline in Asia Pacific region is only 14%.
In India, the decline in new HIV infections over the last 10 years has been 42%. This is about half of what India aspires to achieve (80%) by 2026. AIDS related mortality in India has dropped by around 70% over the last 10 years. Indian government's National AIDS Control Programme phase-V aims to reduce annual new HIV infections and AIDS-related mortalities by 80% by 2025-2026 from the baseline value of 2010. "We are still well short of that target," said Bridger.
According to Indian government's Sankalak 2023 report, "while the overall adult prevalence of HIV in India remains low at 0.20%, it continues to be more than 1% in Mizoram and Nagaland states. The annual new infections between 2010 and 2022 have declined by 42% nationally. However, contrary to the national trend, select northeastern States have seen increases in annual HIV infections in 2022 vis--vis 2010. In Tripura, annual new HIV infections in 2022 increased by 300% times vis--vis 2010. Similarly, in Arunachal Pradesh, annual new HIV infections increased by around 200%, in Meghalaya by 150% and in Assam, by 75%."
Undoubtedly, there is an urgent need to step-up the responses in select locations and sub-populations to fast-track progress towards ending AIDS by 2030.
Investing in young people
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