The HIV epidemic is growing again in more and more places around the world, AIDSfonds reported on Monday ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 December. In 45 countries, more people contracted HIV in 2021 than in the previous year. While with the growing availability of drugs and growing knowledge of HIV, the epidemic is expected to actually decrease.
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, the HIV epidemic has grown structurally over the past decade. But even in Asia and Latin America, where HIV seemed to be reasonably under control for some time, the number of HIV infections is now on the rise again. In 2021, 1.5 million people worldwide will be infected with HIV. In that year, more than 650,000 people died of AIDS.
According to Aidsfonds, the fight against HIV is stagnating in many regions of the world, partly due to growing inequalities. 10 million people living with HIV still lack access to life-saving medicines.
“Inequality and discrimination perpetuate the HIV epidemic,” says Mark Vermeulen, director of AIDSfonds. According to the organization, gay men, transgender people, sex workers, drug addicts and their sexual partners are being stigmatized and discriminated against in an increasing number of countries. As a result, they have little or no access to preventative measures and medicines. The global increase in HIV infections is particularly visible among young people, aged between 15 and 24 years.
The world’s countries with the most people living with HIV also froze their AIDS budgets for the second consecutive year. They need the money they save to fight the coronavirus and the economic crisis that followed the corona pandemic. ap
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Worldwide 1.5 million new HIV infections, fight against it
Worldwide, there has been no decrease in the number of new HIV infections over a year, reports the United Nations program UnAIDS.
