UN Warns Global HIV Toll Likely to be Higher Owing to Covid-19

Jakarta: In a new report, Prevailing against pandemics by putting people at the centre, UNAIDS is calling on countries to make far greater investments in global pandemic responses and adopt a new set of bold, ambitious but achievable HIV targets. 

If those targets are met, the world will be back on track to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
The global AIDS response was off track before the covid-19 pandemic hit, but the rapid spread of the coronavirus has created additional setbacks. 

Modelling of the pandemic’s long-term impact on the HIV response shows that there could be an estimated 123 000 to 293 000 additional new HIV infections and 69 000 to 148 000 additional AIDS-related deaths between 2020 and 2022.

"The collective failure to invest sufficiently in comprehensive, rights-based, people-centred HIV responses has come at a terrible price," said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, in a press release on Thursday.

"Implementing just the most politically palatable programmes will not turn the tide against covid-19 or end AIDS. To get the global response back on track will require putting people first and tackling the inequalities on which epidemics thrive," she stated.

Insufficient investment and action on HIV and other pandemics left the world exposed to covid-19. 

Had health systems and social safety nets been even stronger, the world would have been better positioned to slow the spread of covid-19 and withstand its impact. 

Covid-19 has shown that investments in health save lives but also provide a foundation for strong economies. 

(WAH)