World AIDS Day: United Nations Say It Is Still Possible To End AIDS by 2030: Here's How

In a breakthrough news shared on Tuesday, the United Nations (UN) claimed that it is still possible to reach the ‘end of AIDS’ target by 2030. The UN Member States had set this target during the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS back in 2016. However, due to certain lapses in preventive operations, reaching this target seemed difficult in recent years. 

The UN stated that achieving this target will be possible only if communities and services on the ground are given the right support and means to fast-track prevention and put an end to the AIDS epidemic. 

End Of AIDS By 2030

Ahead of World AIDS Day observed every year on 1st December, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) stated in its annual World AIDS Day Report that community-led responses against AIDS prevention are still vastly unrecognised, do not have adequate resources and are even under attack in some places. 

The report stated that this target can only be achieved if these community-led responses against the public health threat posed by AIDS get back on track. 

According to HIV.gov, as of 2022, approximately 39 million people across the globe are infected by the AIDS-causing Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV). Of these, 37.5 million are adults, and 1.5 million are younger than 15 years old.

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Community Support Against AIDS

As per the UNAIDS report, out of these 39 million, 9.2 million do not have access to life-saving treatment. Citing a reason for this gap in support towards HIV patients, UNAIDS stated, "Harmful laws and policies towards people at risk of HIV, including sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people and people who use drugs, put the communities trying to reach them with HIV services under threat." 

The UNAIDS further relayed that funding is another major issue that has contributed towards the derailment of efforts to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030. Currently, around $20.8 billion has been made available for HIV programmes in low- and middle-income countries, which is $29.3 billion short of the required amount. This is despite the fact that treatment for HIV has come down from $25,000 per person in 1995 to less than $70 now. 

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The UNAIDS report concluded that funding for community-led HIV/AIDS programmes has fallen from 31% in 2012 to 20% in 2021. If the problem of stigma, lack of support for community-led programmes, and low funding to support HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment is back on track, the target to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030 can be achieved.