MONTREAL — Ahead of a major international AIDS conference in Montreal, researchers and officials on Wednesday touted progress toward a cure for HIV but lamented how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the global fight against the disease.
MONTREAL — Ahead of a major international AIDS conference in Montreal, researchers and officials on Wednesday touted progress toward a cure for HIV but lamented how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the global fight against the disease.
A report released Wednesday by UNAIDS — the United Nations’ Joint Program on HIV/AIDS — said about 1.5 million people were infected with HIV in 2021. That number was 3.6 percent less than the previous year. year, but the smallest drop in the number of new infections since 2016.
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima told reporters in Montreal that global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine are responsible for “derailing” progress against HIV.
“The response to the AIDS pandemic has been derailed by global crises, from the collisions of the HIV and COVID pandemics, to the war in Ukraine and the resulting global economic crisis,” Byanima said.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Byanyima added, the number of new infections increased in 2021 after declining for several years. In other parts of the world, she said, progress has stalled.
An estimated 650,000 people died of HIV in 2021, according to the United Nations.
“If these trends continue, we could see 7.7 million additional AIDS-related deaths this decade,” Byanyima said.
The report arrived two days before AIDS 2022, the 24th international AIDS conference, began in Montreal. More than 9,000 researchers, practitioners and people living with HIV are scheduled to attend the conference in person; another 2,000 delegates registered to attend online.
Earlier on Wednesday, researchers spoke about the progress being made toward a cure for HIV.
Dr. Jana Dichter, a researcher at City of Hope Medical Center in California, told reporters that a 66-year-old man with HIV who was treated with a stem cell transplant for acute leukemia was in remission from both conditions in for 17 months.
Dichter, whose research is being presented at the conference, said the patient is the fourth person known to have achieved HIV remission after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation.
“This case opens up opportunities for other older people living with HIV and blood cancers to receive a transplant and achieve remission from both diseases if a donor with this rare genetic mutation can be identified,” she said. adding that stem cell transplants are not an option for most people with HIV because of the significant potential side effects.
Madisa Main, a virologist from Botswana’s Ministry of Health and Welfare, will present research at the conference showing that 95.1 percent of people in 2021 with HIV in the country knew their status, that 98 percent of those individuals were on antiretroviral treatment and that 97.9% of those treated had a suppressed viral load. More than 20 percent of people aged 15 to 64 in the southern African country are HIV-positive.
“Overall, Botswana has made tremendous progress over the past 20 years and we strongly believe that we are well positioned to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030,” Main said.
According to the UNAIDS report, in 2021, 85 percent of people worldwide living with HIV knew their status, 88 percent of those people were receiving treatment, and 92 percent of people receiving treatment had suppressed viral loads. UNAIDS has set a target of reaching 95 percent in all three categories by 2025.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 27, 2022.
Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press
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