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GENEVA / UNAIDS GAP REPORT
STORY: GENEVA / UNAIDS GAP REPORT
TRT: 2.43
SOURCE: UNAIDS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 16 JULY 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND /FILE
16 JULY 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Sidibe going to the podium
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Michel Sidibé, Executive Director UNAIDS:
“We have reached everyone who is easy to reach and that is why UNAIDS is launching the Gap report. There will be no end to the AIDS epidemic if we don’t put people first and close the Gap.”
3. Cutaway, cameraman
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Michel Sidibé, Executive Director UNAIDS:
“Today we are also facing a new generation of HIV challenges, a new generation of gaps. for the first time we can show that 19 million of 35 million people living with HIV do not even know they have the virus.”
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Michel Sidibé, Executive Director UNAIDS:
“We can’t talk just about one epidemic anymore we are seeing different epidemics even in one country there are often many different and complex epidemics, which means we must focus on location and population. Today 15 countries make up 75 percent of the global burden of HIV.”
7. Cutaway, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Michel Sidibé, Executive Director UNAIDS:
“If we are smart and scale up fast by 2020 we will be on track to end the epidemic by 2030 so that AIDS is no longer a public health threat.”
8. Cutaway, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Michel Sidibé, Executive Director UNAIDS:
“We have a fragile five year window of opportunity because what we do over the next five years will determine the next fifteen.”
FILE – UNAIDS – JUNE 2014, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
10. Med shot, onsultations with doctor
11. Close up, doctor writing prescription
12. Med shot, nurse with pill boxes
13. Close up, nurse handing out pills
FILE – UNAIDS – DATE UNKNOWN, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
14. Various shots, HIV testing campaign
A new report released by the United Nations today said the spread of the HIV AIDS could be halted by 2030 if prevention and treatment measures are stepped up. The “Gap Report” also said more than half of HIV positive people in the world – some 19 million do not know their HIV status.
At the press conference in Geneva, Michel Sidibé, the executive director of UNAIDS said that the world is “facing a new generation of HIV challenges, a new generation of gaps.”
Sidibé also said “we can’t talk about just one epidemic anymore” and that the focus should be on “location and population.”
15 countries account for more than 75 percent of the 2.1 million new HIV infections reported in 2013. In sub-Saharan Africa, just three countries- Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda- account for 48 percent of all new HIV infections.
There is progress, the report highlights, noting that efforts to increase access to antiretroviral therapy are working. Research shows that in sub-Saharan Africa, 76 percent of people on ART have achieved viral suppression, where they are unlikely to transmit the virus to their sexual partners. In 2013, an additional 2.3 million people gained access to life-saving medicines, bringing the global number of people accessing ART to nearly 13 million by the end of 2013.
Report claims that by ending the epidemic by 2030, the AIDS would cease to be a public health threat and the world would avert 18 million new HIV infections and 11.2 million AIDS-related deaths between 2013 and 2030.
The report advocates setting up country targets and sound policies that will create the space necessary to address complex micro-epidemics with tailored solutions that will help reach people faster with better HIV services. However, a lack of data, widespread stigma and discrimination, punitive legal environments, barriers to civil society engagement and low investment in essential programmes are all holding back results.
Countries that ignore discrimination and continue inequalities face serious public health and financial consequences of inaction, the report says, stressing that ensuring access to quality HIV services is both a human right and a public health imperative.
For this reason some regions are doing better than others. The highest number of people living with HIV is in sub-Saharan Africa (24.7 million) and Asia and the Pacific (4.8 million). And AIDS related deaths were seen to be rising steeply in the Middle East and North Africa, by 66 percent and in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, by six percent since 2005.
Treatment was most available in Western Europe and North America, while coverage was lowest in the Middle East and North Africa, at just 11 percent of those who were affected. In addition, new HIV infections declined most in the Caribbean – by 40 percent.
The world is seeing the lowest levels of new HIV infections this century, at 2.1 million. In the last three years alone, new HIV infections have fallen by 13 percent. AIDS-related deaths are at their lowest since the peak in 2005, having declined by 35 percent. New HIV infections among children have fallen by 58 percent since 2001 and dropped below 200,000 for the first time in the 21 most affected countries in Africa.
But the focus must remain on people who are often marginalized in society, says UNAIDS. HIV prevalence is estimated to be 28 times higher among people who inject drugs, 12 times higher among sex workers and up to 49 times higher among transgender women than the rest of the adult population. And in sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women account for one in four new HIV infections. Closing the gap between people who are reached with HIV services and people who are not requires research, protective laws that promote freedom and equality for all people.
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