Today, December 1st, is observed as World AIDS Day, and this year’s theme is “End inequalities. End AIDS. End Pandemics.”
As expected, countries all over the world, along with international development partners such as the World Health Organization (WHO), will be highlighting the progress made while drawing global attention to the need for broader engagement with various stakeholders, especially those at the frontline who are involved in providing health care and support to those affected.
Like last year, countries all over are grappling to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more so now with the new variant, Omicron. This in effect means that priority would go towards fighting the pandemic, with HIV being placed on the back burner.
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima had pointed out that COVID-19 pandemic is threatening the progress that the world has made in health and development over the past 20 years, including the gains made against HIV/AIDS.
“Like all epidemics, it is widening the inequalities that already existed. Gender inequality, racial inequality, social and economic inequalities. We are becoming a more unequal world,” she had previously said.
In her message for World AIDS Day 2021, Byanyima reminded that AIDS remains a pandemic, the red light is flashing, and only by moving fast to end the inequalities that drive the pandemic can we overcome it.
In her World AIDS Day message, she said: “Without the inequality-fighting approach we need to end AIDS, the world would also struggle to end the COVID-19 pandemic, and would remain unprepared for the pandemics of the future. That would be profoundly dangerous for us all. Progress in AIDS, which was already off-track, is now under even greater strain as the COVID-19 crisis continues to rage, disrupting HIV prevention and treatment services, schooling, violence prevention programmes, and more.”
HIV continues to be a major global public health issue that claims the lives of thousands worldwide every year.
To reach the target of 90%, an additional 7.5 million people need to access HIV testing services. It should be noted, though, that many more people with HIV are now receiving life-saving drugs which help to keep the virus under control. But millions of people who need treatment still do not have it. For example, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most severely affected part of the world, though some countries in the region have made impressive efforts in reducing fresh cases.
Caribbean countries, including Guyana, can boast of several successes in relation to our HIV response. Programmes to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, reduce new HIV infections, and treat people living with the virus have yielded encouraging results. Additionally, the Caribbean is the only developing region that has approached the near-universal coverage of antiretroviral medicines to prevent mother-to-child transmission. According to official statistics, the Caribbean leads the world in the rates of its reduction in new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths.
In Guyana’s case, there are over 9000 persons diagnosed with HIV, with 71 new cases so far in 2021. In his World AIDS Day message, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said this year’s theme “highlights the importance of addressing economic, gender, racial and social inequalities. These inequalities have prevented persons at risk of HIV from accessing prevention services, and those infected from accessing care and treatment.” These inequalities have driven the HIV pandemic, with 1.7 million people getting infected while 690,000 have died.
Globally, the COVID-19 vaccines have been rolled out and have given hope that the virus would be brought under control. However, there are still serious concerns about equitable access, especially for poorer countries.
According to UNAIDS Executive Director, progress in AIDS, which was already off track, is now under even greater strain as the COVID-19 crisis continues to rage, disrupting HIV prevention and treatment services, schooling, violence prevention programmes and more.
She urged world leaders to work together urgently to tackle challenges head-on. We therefore join the call that there is not a choice to be made between ending the AIDS pandemic that is raging today and preparing for the pandemics of tomorrow. We also support the call that the only successful approach would achieve both.
“If we take on the inequalities that hold back progress, we can deliver on the promise to end AIDS by 2030. It is in our hands. Every minute that passes, we are losing a precious life to AIDS. We don’t have time,” UNAIDS Executive Director has said.
We urge the health authorities and other stakeholders here to use this day to recommit to winning the battle against the colliding epidemics of HIV and COVID-19.
End inequalities. End AIDS. End pandemics.
