147 countries report their progress at the UN in New York
July 15th, 2008This post was written by Diarmaid. You can read more posts by: Diarmaid or more posts in Campaign News
Halfway through the Millennium Development Goals time frame and two years before the 2010 deadline of universal access to treatment, prevention and care, 147 member states met in June to review progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS took place in New York from the 10th to the 12th of the month and in attendance were Wanjiku Kamau and Moono Nyambe who went as part of the UK government’s official delegation. Their summary of the global response: “Progress? Yes. Enough? Absolutely not!”
For every 20 people who start anti-retroviral treatment, 50 more are newly infected. Statistics like this led participants to emphasise the necessity for greater commitment to prevention efforts. It was said that not enough has been done to overcome the difficulties vulnerable groups such as men who have sex with men and intravenous drug users face in accessing services.
Availability of services which prevent mother to child transmission increased impressively in Botswana, Thailand and the Bahamas but a global increase from 14% in 2005 to only 34% in 2007 proved a disappointment – especially considering the programme’s cost effectiveness and the reality that one in six of all new infections are transmitted from mother to child.
With less than 40% of young persons holding an accurate and complete knowledge of HIV and AIDS, doubts have were raised about our chances of achieving 95% awareness in 15-24 year olds by 2010.
That only 30% of people living with HIV/AIDS are receiving anti-retroviral drugs and only 31% of those infected with both TB and HIV have access to their necessary treatments (despite increased availability of affordable TB treatments) were core concerns.
Ironically the issue of travel bans on people living with HIV and AIDS was also underlined by countries such as Mexico and EL Salvador who highlighted the complaints of many delegates who had to fight through US bureaucracy and visa restrictions to simply attend the event.
Although the alarming rise of HIV in Russia, China, Indonesia and Ukraine were disheartening the potential of well designed and properly funded interventions were demonstrated by the explosion in access to treatment from almost nothing to 88% in Namibia and from 1% to 60% in Rwanda.
The MDG review which takes place on 25th September will collate information gained in this meeting to assess the extent to which the world is on track for the 2015 deadline. Whilst progress is being made, it is evident that prevention methods will need to be seriously stepped up in order to reach the UN’s self-created goals.
