New figures show that efforts to reach the 'beginning of the end' of HIV by 2015 are likely to fail without further investment
Progress in combating HIV/Aids over the past two years has led advocates to speak optimistically about the end of the devastating pandemic. But in the same period there have been five million people newly infected with HIV, a number that represents a slowing of progress, according to a new ONE Campaign report.
"The world is off-track for achieving the beginning of the end of Aids by 2015," says the report, which shows that the number of new infections is continuing a slow decline while the number of people newly put on anti-retroviral treatment has flat-lined since 2010. Altering the trajectories of prevention and treatment efforts will bring the world to what the ONE campaign calls "the beginning of the end of Aids".
Projections based on current trends show that the turning point, where the number of people starting treatment exceeds the number of new infections, will not arrive until 2022. ONE proposes an alternative projection whereby 140,000 people are added to treatment programs each year which, together with a doubling of prevention efforts, will accelerate the transition point to 2015.[view whole blog post ]