THE United Nations (UN) has said that it is still possible to reach the “end of AIDS” by 2030 if communities and services on the ground are given the means.
Media reports state that the UNAIDS Agency disclosed this in its annual World AIDS Day Report, where it said that community-led responses are “unrecognised, under-resourced, and in some places under attack”.
“The message of this report is one of active hope. Although the world is not currently on track to end AIDS as a public health threat, it can get on track,” the report said.
It should be noted that the UN first set out in 2015 the target of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
The Agency said that there are 39 million people around the world living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Of them, 20.8 million are in Eastern and Southern Africa, and 6.5 million are in Asia and the Pacific. But out of the 39 million, 9.2 million do not have access to life-saving treatment.
The Agency said programmes delivered by frontline community-based organisations need full support from Governments and donors to end the AIDS pandemic, adding that funding channelled through communities had fallen from 31 per cent in 2012 to 20 per cent in 2021.
