Progress slowing down to reach 2020 target
UNAIDS warns that progress is slowing down and time is running out to reach the 2020 HIV targets. The targets envision reaching out to 90% of any population to have been tested for HIV. Of that tested group, 90% who test HIV positive must access treatment. Of the 90% accessing treatment, 90% must have viral suppression meaning that treatment is successful.
New HIV infections are rising in around 50 countries. AIDS-related deaths are not falling fast enough and flat resources are threatening to erode success achieved so far. Half of all new HIV infections are among sex workers and men who have sex with men.
Zimbabwe has the sixth high- est HIV prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa at 14,5 percent with 1,3 million people living with HIV in 2017.
The National AIDS Council of Zimbabwe, (NAC) reports that the HIV epidemic in Zimbabwe is generalised and is largely driven by unprotected heterosexual sex. Women are disproportionately affected, particularly adolescent girls and young women. However, there are growing epidemics among key populations such as sex workers and men who have sex with men who are at higher risk of HIV infection.
“In 2017, new infections dropped to 35 000 from 79 000 in 2010, with behaviour change communication, high treatment coverage and prevention of mother-to-child transmission services thought to be responsible for this decline,” NAC reports.
However, the decline is still high and needs scaling down inorder to be on target to ending AIDS by 2030. No country is an island and Zimbabwe stands to lose gains achieved if the regional and global infections keep recording an upward trend.
Gains eroded
Last week, UNAIDS issued a stark wake-up call, the gains achieved in ending AIDS are being derailed.
In a new report, launched last week in Paris, France, UNAIDS warns that the global response to HIV is at a precarious point. At the halfway point to the 2020 targets, the report: ‘Miles to go — closing gaps, breaking barriers, righting injustices’, warns that the pace of progress is not matching global ambition. It calls for immediate action to put the world on course to reach critical 2020 targets.
“We are sounding the alarm,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
“Entire regions are falling behind, the huge gains we made for children are not being sustained, women are still most affected, resources are still not matching political commitments and key populations continue to be ignored. All these elements are halting progress and urgently need to be addressed head-on.”
Prevention crisis Global new HIV infections have declined by just 18% in the past seven years, from 2.2 million in 2010 to 1.8 million in 2017. Although this is nearly half the number of new infections compared to the peak in 1996 (3.4 million), the decline is not quick enough to reach the target of fewer than 500 000 by 2020.
The reduction in new HIV infections has been strongest in the region most affected by HIV, eastern and southern Africa, where new HIV infections have been reduced by 30 percent since 2010. However, new HIV infections are rising in around 50 countries.
In eastern Europe and central Asia the annual number of new HIV infections has doubled and new HIV infections have increased by more than a quarter in the Middle East and North Africa over the past 20 years.
Sidibe said treatment scale-up should not be taken for granted.
Zimbabwe continues to drum prevention as the pillar.
The Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr David Parirenyatwa stresses prevention as the main stone to ending AIDS.
“Prevention is the first pillar, the second pillar being prevention and the third pillar still being prevention.”
Zimbabwe has seen success in the decline of mother-to-child HIV transmission.
The Prevention of mother-tochild transmission (PMTCT) has seen HIV positive mothers give birth to HIV negative children. In 2014, Zimbabwe rolled out Option B+, whereby HIV-positive mothers receive antiretroviral drugs for life in line with WHO treatment guidelines — a promising move for Zimbabwe’s HIV response.
In 2016, 93% of pregnant women living with HIV in Zimbabwe received antiretroviral treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission. Prevention stands to win the fight.