A Sydney neighborhood, once the epicenter of Australia’s HIV epidemic, is on track to become the first place in the world where the virus is no longer transmitted, researchers announced Monday.
The joint United Nations program on HIV, UNAIDS, aims to end AIDS as a global health threat by 2030. This means reducing the number of new HIV cases by 90% by the end of the decade, compared to 2010.
“We are almost there”
In an area of central Sydney (“Inner Sydney”), new infections among gay men fell by 88% between 2010 and 2022, researchers announced at the International AIDS Society’s HIV Scientific Conference in Brisbane, Australia, July 23-26.
“We’re almost there,” almost eight years before the UNAIDS target, said Andrew Grulich, an epidemiologist at the University of New South Wales.
Only 11 new HIV cases were recorded in this district last year, “an extraordinarily low number for a place that was at the heart of Australia’s HIV epidemic,” Judge Andrew Grulich said.
“Vaccine”
It is estimated that more than 20% of men are gay in this area, including suburban Darlinghurst, and they account for the vast majority of HIV cases in the city.
Various parts of the UK and Western Europe have also seen a rapid decline in new HIV cases. But “I don’t think any place has achieved a similar drop of almost 90%,” says Professor Grulich. However, that does not mean that HIV is about to be eliminated in this city of 5.2 million people, he added.
“HIV can only be eradicated if we have a vaccine and a treatment.”
“More Than Exciting”
And the decline in new HIV cases has been much less pronounced in other parts of Sydney. Thus, in the city’s most remote suburbs, new cases have only fallen by 31% since 2010, the researchers found.
This disparity is due to a much higher rate of HIV testing and the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which reduces the risk of HIV transmission during sexual intercourse, in the inner city, according to the epidemiologist.
For Sharon Lewin, president of the International AIDS Society, this development is “more than exciting.” “It means that Australia is about to be one of the first countries, if not the first, to achieve the virtual elimination of HIV,” she said in a statement.
Source: BFM TV
