New HIV infections down by 20 per cent in India: UN

According to a UN report, India has been able to achieve a more than 20 per cent decline in new HIV infections between 2000 and 2014.

The report that was released in Addis Ababa- Ethiopia by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Highlights of the report:

• The report says that the world is on track to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
• The report titled “How AIDS changed everything – MDG 6: 15 years, 15 lesson of hope from the AIDS response”, says the world has exceeded the targets contained in the Millennium Development Goals (MGD) to halt and reverse the spread of HIV.
• New HIV infections have fallen by 35% and AIDS-related deaths by 41%, while the global response to HIV has averted 30 million new infections and nearly 8 million AIDS-related deaths since 2000.
• UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “The measure of success for the United Nations is not what we promise, but what we deliver for those who need us most. When it comes to halting and beginning to reverse the AIDS epidemic, the world has delivered.”
• India has changed the course of its national HIV epidemic through the use of strategic information that guided its focus to the locations and population approach.
• HIV treatment coverage for people living with HIV and TB has also increased and in terms of numbers of patients.
• The largest increases in antiretroviral therapy among people living with both HIV and TB have occurred in India, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.
• India accounts for more than 60% of the Asia Pacific region’s people living with HIV-associated TB.
• At present nearly 85% of the antiretroviral medicines for HIV treatment come from India.