#AIDS2016 gives new insights on the rise of new infections
Research has revealed that new HIV infections are on the rise despite drop in Aids deaths.
South Africa has been commended for increasing the number of HIV-positive people who receive antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) since the first Aids conference to be held in this country in the year 2000.
The number of HIV-positive people who are on treatment in this country sits just over three million.
This was revealed at the 21st International AIDS Conference held in Durban this week. A study from the Global Burden of Disease collaborative network published in The Lancet HIV on Tuesday found that Aids-related deaths are falling in most countries across the world.
Even though these findings are positive, they are undermined by the fact that the study also found that new HIV infections have increased in the last ten years.
Between 2005 and 2015 new HIV infections fell by an average of 0.7% per year.
This spells an increase if compared to 1997 and 2005 where new infections fell by 2.7% per year.
This has been seen as undermining global efforts and plans of ending Aids completely by 2030.
Director at the institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle Christopher Murray said, “If this trend of stubbornly high new infections continues there will be significant challenges in meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal for the world to witness the end of AIDS in less than 15 years.”
Murray went on to emphasise the importance of stopping new infection in a bid to completely get rid of HIV and Aids.
“Everyone in population health researchers, policymakers, practitioners, pharmaceutical companies, advocates, and others needs to understand that even if more people are living with HIV, we cannot end AIDS without stopping new infections,” he said.
The study also shines a spotlight on the challenges faced by women when it comes to HIV and Aids.
“In regard to mortality, women tend to die at younger ages from HIV than men likely due to age-disparate relationships in which men have sex with younger women. In total, approximately 1.2 million people died from HIV in 2015, down from a peak of 1.8 million in 2005,” read the findings.
Nduku Kilonzo who is the executive director at the National Aids Control Council of Kenya believes that more emphasis should be put on prevention measures.
“It is important to build sustainable prevention systems and think about effective ways of delivering those systems. We must also be consistent regarding what works, especially when working with people living with HIV in our prevention campaigns,” said Kilonzo.
