World AIDS Day

In News: Dr Ishwar Gilada, who is the president of AIDS Society of India and governing council member of International AIDS Society said that India has done well by making antiretroviral therapy affordable and accessible to over 90 per cent of people living with HIV in the world.

• The theme of World AIDS Day 2022 is ‘Equalize’.
• ‘Undetectable AIDS is untransmittable’. Thus, each new HIV case is a missed opportunity.

About AIDS: AIDS

About AIDS progress:

• Antiretroviral therapy (ART) can result in undetectable viral load for those PLHIV on treatment within just a couple of months
• As in 2021 – 38.4 million people were living with HIV, out of which 1.7 million were children and 54% of all were women and girls.
• In 2021, as per the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)

• 6,50,000 people died of AIDS-related diseases.
• 5 million people became newly infected– 4,000 new infections every day
• Number of people on HIV treatment increased by only 1.47 million in 2021, compared to net increases of more than 2 million people in previous years

• Global context: Out of all people living with HIV, 85 per cent knew their status, 75 per cent were accessing treatment and 68 per cent were virally suppressed in 2021.
• Indian context: According to UNAIDS, an estimated 2.4 million people were living with HIV in India in 2021 (including 70,000 children).

• Out of these 1.9 million or 77 per cent knew their HIV status; 1.6 million (or 65 per cent) were on life-saving antiretroviral therapy; and 1.3 million (55 per cent) had suppressed viral load.
• 63,000 people were newly infected with HIV in 2021 in India – 173 new infections every day or seven infections every hour.
• There were 42,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2021 (5 deaths every hour)

• Factors like lack of accountability, sub-optimal programme effectiveness, and complacency are slowing us down from reaching the goal of an AIDS-free world by 2030
• Measures to be taken such as science-backed tools and approaches to prevent HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) transmission, or diagnosing and treating persons living with HIV (PLHIV) so that they can live healthy lives.

Source Indian Express