Sir Elton John urges world to continue fight to beat HIV

According to the World Health Organization, 36.9 million people around the world are now living with HIV or AIDS.

While the annual number of new infections has decreased since its peak at 3.3 million per year in 1997, it has stayed relatively constant at around an estimated 2.5 million a year worldwide for the past decade.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, said finding an HIV cure is challenging but not impossible.

That study, in turn, was prompted by a 2009 trial in Thailand with a 60 percent rate of protection against the virus after one year and a 31 percent rate at the end of the trial – the first to ever show any signs of success.

Within Europe, the highest number of new infections in 2015 were in Russian Federation (57340), Ukraine (13490), Spain (2350), Portugal (2220), United Kingdom (2060), Italy (1960), and Germany.

The countries that saw an increase in infections between 2005 and 2015 are Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya, Philippines, Cambodia, Mexico, and Russian Federation.

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. In Europe, Russia and Ukraine had the highest rates, while Cambodia had the highest rates in Asia. This year’s theme, “Access Equity Rights Now” serves as a call for action and cooperation in reaching people who lack access to the life-saving treatment, prevention, and support services they deserve.

Although global HIV mortality has been declining at 5.5% a year since the mid-2000s, progress has been mixed between regions and countries.

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

By 2020, it wants 90 percent of people with HIV to know their status, 90 percent of diagnosed people to be on treatment, and 90 percent of those on treatment to have suppressed levels of the virus in their bodies.

“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”.