More people living with HIV lead longer, healthier lives today. Though this is good news in some ways, the global fight against HIV has become a victim of its own success.
“HIV and AIDS … rose to the level of being on the political agenda 20 years ago because they saw death and despair. That is not the case anymore,” Angeli Achrekar, UNAIDS deputy executive director of programs and United Nations assistant secretary-general, told Devex.
The number of people dying from AIDS-related illnesses went down from 660,000 in 2021 to 630,000 in 2022, according to new data released by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Countries such as Botswana, Eswatini, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe have also achieved the UNAIDS’ 95-95-95 targets. This means that 95% of people living with HIV in these countries know their status, 95% of that number are on antiretroviral treatment, and 95% of those on treatment have virally suppressed HIV, meaning they are highly unlikely to transmit the virus to another person. The data also showed a decline in new HIV infections to 1.3 million in 2022 from 1.4 million in 2021.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
