The World Progresses towards Victory over AIDS

The threat posed by HIV to the world is finally fading as the number of deaths and infections have declined in the past decade. Heterosexuals outside South Africa will not face the global epidemic of the disease.

With the exception of sub-Saharan African, AIDS is expected to be confined to high-risk groups, which include men who have sex with other men, drug users who inject with needles, and sex workers and their clients, according to a report in The Independent.

“It is very unlikely there will be a heterosexual epidemic in other countries,” Kevin de Cock, the head of World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department, was quoted as saying. “Ten years ago a lot of people were saying there would be a generalized epidemic in Asia — China was the big worry with its huge population. That doesn't look likely. But we have to be careful. As an epidemiologist it is better to describe what we can measure. There could be small outbreaks in some areas.”

However, anti-retroviral treatments are not being provided adequately, especially in developing nations. Asian countries like India and China, with their massive populations are at huge risk of infections and a report published earlier this year revealed that only a third of the HIV-positive people are receiving the required therapy.

UN health programmes provided anti-retroviral treatment to an additional 1 million people in 2007, but a total of 2.5 million people became infected with the AIDS virus, in the same year.

“Unless the international community takes immediate action to follow through on the pledges made to implement an exceptional response to HIV, the epidemic's humanitarian and economic toll will continue to increase,” says the UN, in an update report to be presented to the two-day UN General Assembly's HIV/AIDS conference beginning on Tuesday.

The disease has taken the lives of more than 25 million people since mid-1980s, when the HIV was first isolated.

Fighting it would require, “strong, sustained political commitment and leadership,” said the UN, “True leadership is reflected in action, not words.”