UN body advises on AIDS

As the world prepares to mark World AIDS Day (December 1), a United Nations organization has said that strong adherence to antiretroviral therapy suppresses viral load to undetectable levels within people living with HIV, greatly reducing the risk of transmitting the virus to others.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has said that when large proportions of people living with HIV within a community are on treatment, it has been shown to have a preventive effect within that community.

" Achievement of UNAIDS 90-90-90 treatment target by 2020 alongside high coverage of primary HIV prevention interventions can make the end of the AIDS epidemic a reality by 2030," UNAIDS said in a statement.

The 90-90-90 treatment target means that 90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV status are accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads.     

However, the organization said that the global gap in achieving the 90-90-90 target in 2015 was around 11.9 million people living with HIV who did not know their HIV status, 12.7 million people in need of antiretroviral treatment and 13.0 million people living with HIV who were not virally suppressed.   

UNAIDS serves as the leading advocate for global action against HIV/AIDS. Its mission is to guide, strengthen and support worldwide efforts to turn the tide against the epidemic

According to the fact sheet 2016, global statistics 2015 show that 17 million people were accessing antiretroviral therapy, 36.7 million [34.0 million-39.8 million] people globally were living with HIV, 2.1 million [1.8 million-2.4 million] people became newly infected with HIV,1.1 million [940 000-1.3 million] people died from AIDS-related illnesses while 78 million [69.5 million-87.6 million] people have become infected with HIV since the start of the epidemic.

It also said that 35 million [29.6 million - 40.8 million] people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic.