A new report of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world as of 2024 has been published.
In the foreword to this document, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima states that world leaders can fulfil their promise to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, and in so doing prevent millions of AIDS-related deaths, prevent millions of new HIV infections, and ensure the almost 40 million people living with HIV have healthy, full lives. Through powerful case studies and new data, the report shows how some countries are already on the right path - and how all countries can get on it.
Progress against HIV has been strongest in the countries that have invested as required in their responses and reformed their policies to enable people to access the services they need. Winnie Byanyima emphasizes that success in promoting and sustaining progress in HIV prevention and treatment in many parts of the world is hampered by inequities in access to health services, harmful criminal laws and discrimination, and lack of funding. Gobal numbers of new HIV infections are not declining fast enough, and in three regions of the world numbers of HIV infections are rising. Almost a quarter of people living with HIV are not receiving lifesaving treatment, and consequently a person dies from AIDS-related causes every minute.
The HIV response is at a crossroads. Whether the world ends AIDS depends on the path that leaders take. Leaders can end AIDS as a public health threat only by overcoming it everywhere, for everyone.