By Edith M. Lederer, AP Nearly 40 million people were living with the HIV virus that causes AIDS last year, over nine million weren’t getting any treatment, and the result was that every minute someone died of AIDS-related causes, the United Nations said in a new report launched July 22, 2024. While advances are being made to end the global AIDS pandemic, the report said progress has slowed, funding is shrinking, and new infections are rising in three regions: the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America.
In 2023, around 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses, a significant decline from the 2.1 million deaths in 2004. But the latest figure is more than double the target for 2025 of fewer than 250,000 deaths, according to the report by UNAIDS, the UN agency leading the global effort to end the pandemic.
Gender inequality is exacerbating the risks for girls and women, the report said, citing the extraordinarily high incidence of HIV among adolescents and young women in parts of Africa. The proportion of new infections globally among marginalized communities that face stigma and discrimination—sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs also increased to 55 percent in 2023 from 45 percent in 2010, it said. UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “World leaders pledged to end the AIDS pandemic as a public health threat by 2030, and they can uphold their promise, but only if they ensure that the.