December 1 is World AIDS Day. 

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is acquired at the most advanced stage of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

About 650,000 people died of AIDS in 2021 alone, according to the The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) report released at the 2022 International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Montreal, Canada.

While the gap between HIV treatment coverage for adults and children has widened, with only 52 percent of children are on life-saving treatment, far behind adults, among whom 76 percent are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), said the report.

The ART is an standard treatment of the disease, which helps suppress the amount of virus in the blood and partially restores the immune system.

Global efforts in AIDS prevention and treatment

A new alliance, the Global Alliance for Ending AIDS in Children by 2030, was formed during the IAC to ensure that all children living with HIV would have access to treatment by 2030 and prevent new infants from HIV infections.

The UNAIDS aims for HIV testing, treatment and viral suppression rates to be 95 percent for all three aspects by 2025.

Globally scientific research has made progress in HIV treatment and prevention.

A cancer treatment center, City of Hope, in Duarte, California, United States announced in July this year that a 66-year-old man who was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 has been in remission from the virus for over 17 months.

"This was the fourth in the world and the oldest to go into long-term remission of HIV after receiving stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation," it added.

"This may open up whole new opportunities for older patients living with HIV and blood cancer," said Ahmed Aribi, assistant professor at Division of Leukemia of the center.

Besides, German scientists in March also developed new technology that can be used to analyze and impact key stages of the HIV life cycle, according to the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research in Würzburg, Germany.

"Key stages in the life cycle of a virus can represent attractive targets for drugs and therapies. Therefore, basic research is important to understand and impact the underlying molecular processes," said the institute.

In addition, an international team of researchers led by Denmark has found a way to boost the body's ability to suppress the HIV virus with experimental medicines. The related research was published in the journal, Nature Medicine in October.

Researchers said the result was "an important step towards a cure," according to the Aarhus University, which led the research.

The university said that the study has already "attracted considerable attention" and the US Department of Health earmarked a large pool of money for research in this area, adding that efforts have been carried out to optimize the new experimental treatment in Europe and Africa.

AIDS prevention and treatment in China

China has made "remarkable achievements" in HIV prevention and control during the past decade, keeping its prevalence rate at a low level, Feng Zijian, executive vice president and secretary general of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association (CPMA), said at a press conference on June 17, 2022.

Feng said that the percentage of people living with HIV receiving ART treatment has increased from 87.3 percent in 2012 to 92.6 percent now.

Feng added that transfusion-transmitted infections have been basically blocked, and perinatal transmission and injection drug use has fallen to historic lows.

Wang Linhong, chairman at the Women's Healthcare Branch of the CPMA and chief expert on Chronic Diseases at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference on May 30 that the detection rate of HIV in pregnant women across the country has reached more than 99 percent and perinatal transmission of HIV has dropped to 3.3 percent.