UNAIDS Global AIDS Update - Press Conference (23 July 2019)

The Acting Executive Director of UNAIDS, Gunilla Carlsson, said the global response to HIV is at a “precarious point” as “some countries are making impressive gains while others are experiencing rises in new HIV infections, and even AIDS related deaths.”
Annual gains Carlsson said, “are getting smaller and the pace of progress is slowing down.”
The Acting Executive Director said the latest report on the Implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS “shows that key global AIDS targets for 2020 are unlikely to be met even though some countries and regions have made good progress.”
The “good news,” she said is that “globally there are now over 23 million people on treatment, surviving, thriving, and living healthy lives” but “15 million people are still waiting for treatment, either not being tested, or being tested and not having access to treatment and care yet.”
Carlsson said, “we are seeing continuing rises in new infections and AIDS related deaths in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Men are not still being reached as widely as women, and children are not getting access to treatment. Only half of all children living with HIV had access to treatment in 2018. Key populations, which now makes up to 54 percent of the new HIV infections, are still not being reached. And we are talking about sex workers, people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, transgender people, prisoners, and their partners.”
She stressed that “the end of AIDS is possible” but will require “increased political leadership and a renewed global commitment to end AIDS as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Sustainable Development Goal number 3, calls for by 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases.