UN Recommendations for Addressing HIV / AIDS – NationNews Barbados — nationnews.com

Post May 3, 2021

UN-UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that inequality in AIDS efforts threatened global efforts to eradicate AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

The UN chief issued a warning in a report released Friday. It provides 10 important recommendations for getting the world back on track.

According to the United Nations, Caribbean countries are second only to sub-Saharan Africa in terms of the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Despite actions and developments against HIV in some places and population groups, the report reveals that the HIV epidemic continues to spread elsewhere.

The report was published just weeks before the major UN General Assembly on AIDS.

In a report, the UN Secretary-General said, “It is imperative to get out of the increasingly costly and unsustainable cycle of making some progress on HIV, but in the end it will end the pandemic. Is inadequate. “

“Inequality is the main reason why we failed to reach our global goals for 2020,” he added. “Ending inequality can have transformative consequences for people, communities and nations living with HIV.”

In 2016, the UN General Assembly set a goal of having less than 500,000 new HIV infections by 2020.

Last year, the United Nations said that number was 1.7 million, or three times the target.

Similarly, the United Nations said that 690,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2019 far exceeded the goal of less than 500,000 deaths annually.

“Ending AIDS as a public hygiene threat by 2030 is still within reach. Many countries will be HIV if evidence-based strategies and human rights-based approaches are adopted. It shows that rapid progress is possible against the disease. ”This is leading the global fight against this disease.

“But it takes bold political leadership to challenge and address social injustices and inequality that continue to make certain groups and communities of people extremely vulnerable to HIV transmission,” she said. I added.

The report emphasizes the importance of addressing social and structural factors that perpetuate inequality.

For example, the report states that gender inequality, backed by harmful gender norms, limits women’s use of HIV services, sexual and reproductive health services.

“This can affect decision-making, including the ability to reject unwanted sex and negotiate safer sex,” the report said. Information and HIV services, whether preventive or care. “

According to the report, these groups include gay men and other men who have sex with men, drug users, sex workers, transgender people, prisoners, and immigrants.

Ten recommendations to bring the world back on the road to eradicating AIDS cover issues such as tackling inequality and reaching all people at risk of HIV transmission.

According to the report, the goal is to reduce new infections to less than 370,000 and AIDS-related deaths to less than 250,000 by 2025.

The recommendations call for bridging the gap between HIV testing and treatment and putting “human rights of women and girls in gender equality and all diversity” at the center of risk mitigation efforts.

Another step is to prioritize HIV prevention, ensuring that 95% of people at risk have prevention options by 2025 and eliminate new infections in children. I will.

The report also outlines how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed social inequality and weaknesses in the health care system.

Guterres said the world should leverage its experience in responding to the AIDS crisis to strengthen its health care system and improve its pandemic preparedness.

He also called for more global solidarity, including increasing annual HIV investment in low- and middle-income countries such as the Caribbean to US $ 29 billion by 2025. (CMC)