Three-quarters of people with HIV globally are on ART, UNAIDS reports
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Key takeaways:
- Fewer people acquired HIV in 2023 than at any point since the late 1980s, according to UNAIDS.
- The number of people who died of AIDS-related causes was 39% lower in 2023 than it was in 2010.
Three-quarters of people globally living with HIV are on ART, a roughly 30% increase during the last nine years, and fewer people acquired HIV in 2023 than at any point since the late 1980s, UNAIDS reported.
According to the report, titled The Urgency of Now: AIDS at a Crossroads, just under 31 million people living with HIV are receiving ART — translating to more than three in four people living with HIV being on the treatment, an increase from 47% in 2010.
“The data show progress ... but the world is not on track to end AIDS by 2030,” Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, said during a press conference at the AIDS 2024 conference in Munich. “New infections are not decreasing. They are rising in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. They are rising in the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America.”
UNAIDS unveiled its 2024 update on the global epidemic of HIV and AIDS, showing that amid the large increase in people with HIV receiving treatment, global funding for HIV programs is shrinking as the number of people with HIV has grown in many regions of the world.
AIDS-related deaths have fallen by about half since 2010 — from 1.3 million to about 630,000 in 2023 — and the 1.3 million people who acquired HIV in 2023 was 39% lower than in 2010. According to the report, however, 1.3 million new cases of HIV is three times higher than the 2025 target of 370,000 or fewer new infections.
UNAIDS estimates that it is possible to meet the 2025 target of 250,000 AIDS-related deaths globally with rapid increases in diagnoses and treatment for people with HIV. Currently, 9.3 million people living with HIV were not receiving ART in 2023, roughly half of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Additionally, 2023 was the first time that more new HIV infections were occurring outside sub-Saharan Africa than in sub-Saharan Africa, with eastern Europe, central Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa all seeing increasing numbers of new HIV infections.
Byanyima said steps can be taken to improve the situation to meet both 2025 and 2030 targets, noting that resources, restructuring of debt in sub-Saharan Africa, wider distribution of long-acting treatments and ending stigmas are key.
“The HIV response globally is short of $9.5 billion, and this gap keeps increasing. Some donors are saying, ‘well, I think we’ve done enough,” she said, adding that “the same donors in the last 2 years have put at least $500 billion into the war in Ukraine.”
At AIDS 2024, Gilead this week reported complete data on its investigational long-acting antiretroviral drug lenacapavir, which prevented 100% of new HIV infections during a phase 3 trial among women in Africa.
Byanyima said that distributing the twice-yearly injectable drug to Africa, Asia and Latin America by speeding generic production for the drug from about $40,000 per year to roughly $100 per year could be a “miracle prevention tool.”
She added that tackling discrimination of marginalized people, for instance by decriminalizing same-sex relationships and decriminalizing sex work, could also go a long way.
“World leaders pledged to end the AIDS pandemic as a public health threat by 2030, and they can uphold their promise, but only if they ensure that the HIV response has the resources it needs and that the human rights of everyone are protected,” Byanyima said.
References:
- New UNAIDS report shows AIDS pandemic can be ended by 2030, but only if leaders boost resources and protect human rights now. https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2024/july/20240722_global-aids-update. Published July 22, 2024. Accessed July 24, 2024.
- UNAIDS. The urgency of NOW: AIDS at a crossroads — 2024 global AIDS update. https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/documents/2024/global-aids-update-2024. Published July 22, 2024. Accessed July 24, 2024.
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