Geneva. If the world is to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030, as was decided years ago, billions will have to be invested. All intermediate targets set for 2020, have been missed, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS reported Thursday on the 40th anniversary of the first description of the then-mysterious disease in Geneva. Since then, it is estimated that nearly 35 million people have died from AIDS-related complications.
The failure is not only due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has devoured resources in many countries and prevented people from getting tests or taking medicines. For several years, international funds raised to fight AIDS have been declining, according to the Joint United Nations Program on AIDS. Next week, the United Nations wants to launch a new call for donations at the AIDS Summit in New York.
‘A new dynamic is badly needed’
“The Covid pandemic has shown politicians how vulnerable all of us are, how economic life can be halted, and how people are dying,” UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima told DPA.
For this reason, new dynamics must now be developed in the fight against AIDS. “We have demonstrated (in the coronavirus pandemic) that science can produce solutions in no time, and we have demonstrated that governments can bring together resources,” Benaimeh said. So she is cautiously optimistic that it will also be possible to end the HIV pandemic. (dpa)
