Good News - World AIDS Day 2011 (1 December 2011)
UNAIDS report 2011 released prior to World Aids Day shows how the scale-up in HIV treatment is beginning to deliver results: nearly 50% (6.6 million) of the 14.2 million people who are eligible for antiretroviral therapy in low- and middle- income countries were accessing life-saving treatment in 2010, an increase of 1.35 million since 2009. The report also states that 2.5 million deaths have been averted in low- and middle- income countries due to increased access to HIV treatment since 1995.
Increased financial support is required to reach the remaining 50% of HIV positive people who do not have access to treatment. According to figures released by UNAIDS March 2010:
- In Malawi 888,000 people are living with HIV
- Mother to Child is the second most common form of HIV transmission and accounts for 30% of all new infections
“Providing pregnant women living with HIV with antiretroviral prevention and treatment reduces the risk of a child being born with the virus to less than 5%—and keeps their mothers alive to raise them. (UNAIDS 2010)
Neither technical nor scientific barriers stand in the way of providing this treatment.
