WHO targets 2030 to end HIV

Despite major advances, HIV/AIDS remains one of the world's most significant public health challenges, particularly in low and middle income countries. The World Health Organsiation (WHO) has targeted 2030 to end HIV, as new infections drop by 35% since the peak in 2000.

World AIDS Day on December 1 2015 aimed to unite people in the fight against HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus first identified in 1984.

UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS, released a report ahead of World AIDS Day showing that countries are getting on the fast-track to end AIDS by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. By adapting to a changing global environment and maximizing innovations, countries are seeing greater efficiencies and better results in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Progress in responding to HIV over the past 15 years has been extraordinary. By June 2015, UNAIDS estimates that 15.8 million people were accessing antiretroviral therapy, compared to 7.5 million people in 2010 and 2.2 million people in 2005. At the end of 2014, UNAIDS estimate that new HIV infections had fallen by 35% since the peak in 2000 and AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 42% since the 2004 peak.

“Every five years we have more than doubled the number of people on life-saving treatment,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “We need to do it just one more time to break the AIDS epidemic and keep it from rebounding.”

The life-changing benefits of antiretroviral therapy mean that people living with HIV are living longer, healthier lives, which has contributed to an increase in the global number of people living with HIV.

Facts about AIDS in 2015 with data from the WHO, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF, and UNAIDS:

Globally about 36.9 million people are living with HIV including 2.6 million children.
An estimated 2 million people were infected in 2014.
An estimated 34 million people have died from HIV or AIDS, including 1.2 million in 2014.
The number of adolescent deaths from AIDS has tripled over the last 15 years.
AIDS is the number one cause of death among adolescents in Africa and the second among adolescents globally.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest prevalence, girls account for 7 in 10 new infections among those aged 15-19.
At start of 2015, 15 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy compared to 1 million in 2001.
Despite widespread availability of HIV testing, only an estimated 51 percent of people with HIV know their status.
The global response to HIV has averted 30 million new HIV infections and nearly 8 million deaths since 2000.
In 2015, Cuba was the first country declared to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

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World Aids Day 2015: WHO targets 2030 to end HIV

Despite major advances, HIV/AIDS remains one of the world's most significant public health challenges, particularly in low and middle income countries. The World Health Organsiation (WHO) has targeted 2030 to end HIV, as new infections drop by 35% since the peak in 2000.