HIV vaccine to be tested in South Africa

Professor Peter Piot, Director at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said, “The continuing high rate of over 2 million new HIV infections represents a collective failure which must be addressed through prevention efforts and continued investment in HIV vaccine research”.

PRINCE Harry’s campaign to raise awareness about HIV will move to the worldwide stage today when he arrives in South Africa to attend a global conference about Aids.

In sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for about 70 per cent of people in the world living with HIV, 3 out of every 4 adolescents newly infected by HIV in 2015 were girls, ” a UNICEF statement revealed.

“As people with HIV live longer, Aids is a topic that has drifted from the headlines”.

New infections, at 2.1 million in 2015, still exceed the number of people starting antiretroviral treatment each year, Chris Beyrer, president of the International AIDS Society said. Of this investment, $40 million is focused on keeping girls in secondary school, which dramatically reduces their vulnerability to HIV infection, and almost half of these education-focused resources are directed to Malawi.

But they point out: “In the past decade, progress in reducing new infections has been slow, development assistance for health devoted to HIV has stagnated, and resources for health in low-income countries have grown slowly”. “Who knows, it might take fifty years but it will change”.

Researchers did find the increases in age-standardized rates of new infections between 2005 and 2015 in 74 countries, including Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya, the Philippines, Cambodia, Mexico, and Russian Federation, something that threatens to undermine past progress in combating infections.

In 2015, the highest incidence rates in Europe were in Russian Federation (exceeding 20 per 100000), while Cambodia (above 46 per 100000) had the highest rates in Asia.

No country has achieved the UNAIDS 90-90-90 target that 81% of people living with HIV should be receiving ART by 2020 yet, Sweden (76%), the USA, Netherlands, and Argentina (all at about 70%) are close.

The Prince will arrive in Durban this evening and hold private meetings ahead of his participation in the conference on Thursday.

Africa is the continent hardest hit by the epidemic, but the subject of homosexuality is taboo in many African countries.

“And if they are gay, and if they have HIV, they’re not likely to come out, they’re going to spread the disease further”. “PrEP has to be part of the puzzle for ending HIV”.