Some 650,000 people died of AIDS in 2021 and 1.5 million people became infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) last year, according to the annual report of the United Nations Program to Combat HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Posted this Tuesday.
The total number of new infections last year was similar to that registered in 2020, while deaths fell by 5.79%, although it was observed that the mortality rate was especially alarming among children.
According to UNAIDS, 15% of all deaths last year were among children under the age of 14, despite the fact that they represent less than 15% of the people living with HIV in the world.
In total, 38.4 million people have HIV worldwide, according to the latest available statistics, 1.5% more than in 2020, when the disease affected some 37.8 million people, according to the report presented to two days of World AIDS Day, which is celebrated on December 1. 1st
In any case, new infections have fallen 54% since the peak of the disease in 1996 and deaths 32% since 2004, when two million people lost their lives to AIDS.
Almost two thirds of global infections occurred through sexual contact between people belonging to risk groups (sex workers, men who have sex with men, injection drug users and transgender people).
The positive part is that in 2021 the number of people with access to antiretroviral therapy increased, rising by 5.22%, reaching 28.7 million people treated.
By region, Eastern and Southern Africa accounts for almost half of all AIDS cases in the world: 20.6 million, of which 78% have access to antiretroviral treatment.
Treatment is less common in North Africa and Central Asia, where only half of the affected population has the necessary therapies.
The document highlights gender inequality in the fight against AIDS in different regions of the world and shows its impact on women in sub-Saharan Africa, where adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are twice as likely to be infected than men of the same age. range. age
About 63% of new HIV infections in the region were women, almost 10 percentage points more than global statistics.
Source: TSF
