[afro-nets] UNAIDS: AIDS epidemic still outpacing response

[Leela McCullough <leela@healthnet.org>]

AIDS epidemic still outpacing response
--------------------------------------

UNAIDS - Press release 2 June, 2005


Report by UN Secretary-General calls on governments to expand
access to HIV prevention and treatment

United Nations, New York, 2 June 2005 ­ Despite encouraging
signs that the AIDS epidemic is beginning to be contained in a
small but growing number of countries, the epidemic continues to
expand worldwide, according to a report released by UN Secre-
tary-General Kofi Annan.

The report was prepared for a high-level UN ministerial gather-
ing today that will assess progress towards meeting the targets
set four years ago at a historic UN General Assembly Special
Session on HIV/AIDS.

"We are seeing real signs of progress in tackling AIDS at the
community level, but it is still not enough," said UN Secretary-
General Kofi Annan. "It is time for Governments to translate
commitment into concrete action. In September, world leaders
will meet at the United Nations to assess progress in implement-
ing the Millennium Declaration, and to chart the road ahead. How
we fare in the fight against AIDS is crucial. Halting the spread
is not only a Millennium Development Goal in itself; it is a
prerequisite for reaching most of the others."

While progress has been made, the report emphasizes the need for
an increased global response in order to meet the 2005 goals
agreed to by all UN Member States at the UN Special Session in
2001. These goals, contained in the Declaration of Commitment on
HIV/AIDS, focus on the rapid expansion of HIV prevention, care,
treatment and impact alleviation programmes. They are a vital
foundation to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goal of
halting and reversing the epidemic by 2015. For example, one of
the goals is that by the end of 2005, HIV prevalence among young
men and women aged 15 to 24 in the most affected countries
should be at least 25% lower than in 2001. The reality is that
young people continue to represent one half of all new HIV in-
fections worldwide, and often do not have access to life-saving
prevention services.

?The AIDS epidemic has entered a new and critical phase, and so
must the response,? said Dr Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Direc-
tor. ?The only way we will get ahead of the epidemic is if there
is universal access to HIV prevention and treatment. This needs
to be the world?s immediate goal.?

UN Member States participating in today?s General Assembly High-
Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS will review progress made towards
achieving the UN goals, and will outline solutions and policies
needed to meet the targets and roll back the epidemic. According
to the Secretary-General?s report, progress has been made on
several fronts since 2001. Worldwide, the number of people re-
ceiving counselling and testing services has doubled over the
past four years. The number of women accessing services to pre-
vent mother-to-child HIV transmission has increased by 70%, and
the number of young people who have received AIDS education has
doubled.

Funding for AIDS in developing countries has also increased dra-
matically ­ from US$2 billion in 2001 to an estimated US$8 bil-
lion in 2005. But resources still fall short of what is needed
to effectively turn back the epidemic.

Despite encouraging signs, the report also outlines serious
challenges that need urgent attention in order to achieve the
intended goal of reversing the epidemic. Access to HIV treatment
and prevention services remains low. As of end 2004, only 12% of
the 6 million people who need HIV treatment worldwide had access
to it. Globally, only one in five people has access to preven-
tion services. And targeted prevention services in 2003 reached
only 16% of sex workers, 11% of men who have sex with men, 20%
of street children, and less than 5% of the world?s 13 million
injecting drug users.

The report makes specific recommendations for scaling up preven-
tion and treatment efforts, expanding services to orphans and
children made vulnerable by AIDS, ensuring gender equality, and
mobilizing additional resources for fighting AIDS. These include
making HIV testing services more widely available, integrating
HIV prevention into treatment scale up efforts, promoting uni-
versal free education for boys and girls, and combating violence
against women.

About the UN Secretary-General?s Report The report of the UN
Secretary-General presented to the General Assembly today is
based on country data from various sources, including national
data on key AIDS indicators from 17 countries in Africa, Asia,
the Caribbean and Eastern Europe, other national surveys, com-
missioned studies and evidence-based estimates of coverage for
key AIDS interventions. In 2006, the UN Secretary-General will
release a more comprehensive report on meeting the 2005 goals
based on end 2005 data on all global and country indicators. The
indicators measure the progress towards implementing the targets
and goals of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. The in-
dicators are broken down as follows:

*Global-level indicators (e.g., international spending, policies
and advocacy efforts) *National commitment and action indicators
(e.g., domestic government spending; country-level policy devel-
opment and implementation) *National programme and behaviour in-
dicators (e.g., access of vulnerable groups to key services;
risk behaviour changes) *National impact indicators (e.g., rate
of new infections among young people, high-risk groups and in-
fants born to HIV-infected mothers)
________________________________________________________________
For more information, please contact Annemarie Hou, UNAIDS, New
York, mobile (+41 79) 500 2123, Jonathan Rich, UNAIDS, New York,
tel. (+1 212) 532 0255, Dominique De Santis, UNAIDS, Geneva,
(+41 22) 791 4509 or Newton Kanhema, UN Department of Public In-
formation, New York, tel (+1 212) 963-5602. The Secretary-
General?s Report and information on the General Assembly High-
Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS can be accessed on the UNAIDS website,
www.unaids.org.

--
Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services

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