infections

The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says that people in several African countries are using fewer condoms and have sex with more than one partner, threatening efforts to fight HIV.

In its annual report, UNAIDS notes that new infections in sub-Saharan Africa dropped 34 percent between 2001 and 2012.

However, the region last year still accounted for 70 percent of the estimated 2.3 million new infections with the virus.

If further states that there is evidence that the number of people who have more than one sexual partner was rising in many African countries.

According to a United Nations report, the global rate of HIV infection and the number of AIDS-related deaths have been dramatically reduced due to expanding access to treatment.

In its annual update on HIV, which it says now infects around 35.3 million people worldwide, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says deaths from AIDS and HIV infection rates are falling, while the number of people getting treatment is going up.

According to an authoritative United Nations report, the death toll is falling but there is still no hope for an end to the worldwide pandemic.

The report states that risky sexual behaviour is continuing around the globe and even increasing in some countries, threatening to derail efforts to stop transmission of the HIV virus and bring the AIDS epidemic to an end.

It further states that although drug treatment for people with HIV is saving millions of lives and deaths are falling, the prospects for stopping the spread of infection are not promising.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says that South Africa should see a massive reduction in HIV/IDS cases by the end of the decade after a sea-change in government policy.

The UNAIDS regional director for East and Southern Africa, Sheila Tlou, points out that the country now has more people with HIV infections than any country in the world, with 5.6 million.

Tlou says that East and Southern Africa is known as ‘the centre of the epidemic’ because of the 34 million people living with HIV in the world, almost three quarters live in that region.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says that women need access to family planning and contraception services if HIV/AIDS among pregnant women is to be reduced.

Catherine Tomlinson, a senior researcher at TAC, points out that it is crucial to address the need for family planning and contraception services.

“We need to expand services for women to become pregnant safely without risking becoming HIV-positive. To do this, women should be given the knowledge and services to plan their pregnancies,” she explains.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says that the HIV-prevalence among pregnant women in the country has increased from 29.4 to 30.2 percent.

Motsoaledi, who released the National Antenatal Sentinel HIV and Syphilis Prevalence survey, pointed out that, “We’re still far from winning the war, but we are getting somewhere.”