UNAIDS: Half of people with HIV receiving treatment

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Progress has been made in HIV treatment over the past 15 years with around 57 percent of all people worldwide living with the virus currently receiving treatment, UNAIDS said on Monday.

In 2000, just 685,000 people living with HIV had access to antiretroviral therapy. By June 2017, around 20.9 million of the 36.7 million people globally living with HIV had access to life-saving medicines, according to the Right to Health report launched ahead of World AIDS Day.

"This is the kind of acceleration we need to encourage, sustain and replicate," said UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibé.

Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, displays a copy of a new UN report, ‘Focus on location and population: on the Fast-Track to end AIDS by 2030,’ launched ahead of World AIDS Day. /UNAIDS Photo

As the population receiving HIV treatment rises, scientific research has also shown that a person living with HIV and adhering to an effective regime of antiretroviral therapy is up to 97 percent less likely to transmit the virus.

Meanwhile, treatment of pregnant women living with HIV has rapidly reduced new infections among children, down by 56 percent from 2010 to 2016 in eastern and southern Africa, the region most affected by HIV, and by 47 percent globally.

The challenges now are to ensure that the remaining 16 million people in need of treatment, including 919,000 children, have access to medicines and to put HIV prevention back at the top of public health programs particularly in countries where new infections are rising.

AFP Photo/Getty Images

New HIV infections are rising at a rapid pace in countries that have not expanded health and HIV services to the areas and the populations where they are most effective.

In eastern Europe and central Asia, for example, new infections have risen by 60 percent since 2010 and AIDS-related deaths by 27 percent.

Increasing funding for health is the key to reduce new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, the report said, as the funding shortfall for HIV treatment is estimated at seven billion US dollars by 2020.

It also gives examples of how to enhance funding, such as increasing the share of health spending as a proportion of national economies and partnering with the private sector.