HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed more than 32 million lives so far. However, with increasing access to effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, including for opportunistic infections, HIV infection has become a manageable chronic health condition, enabling people living with HIV to lead long and healthy lives. There were approximately 37.9 million people living with HIV at the end of 2018.

According to World Health Organization report, concerted international efforts to respond to HIV and coverage have been steadily increasing. In 2018, sixty two percent of adults and fifty four percent of children living with HIV in low-and middle-income countries were receiving lifelong antiretroviral therapy. A great majority which is equivalent to eighty two percent of pregnant and breast-feeding women living with HIV also received ART, which not only protects their health, but also ensures prevention of HIV transmission to their new-borns.

In June 2015, over twenty four million people were accessing antiretroviral therapy, the report said. Between 2000 and 2018, new HIV infections fell by 37 percent and HIV-related deaths fell by forty five percent, with thirteen point six million lives saved due to ART. This achievement was the result of great efforts by national HIV programmes supported by civil society and international development partners.
However, not everyone is able to access HIV testing, treatment and care. Notably, the 2018 super-fast-track targets for reducing new paediatric HIV infections to forty thousand was not achieved.

Global targets for 2020 are at risk of being missed unless rapid action is taken. Due to gaps in HIV services, seven hundred and seventy people died from HIV-related causes in 2018 and 1.7 million people were newly infected.In 2018, for the first time, the report underlined that individuals from key population groups and their sexual partners accounted for over half of all new HIV infections globally (an estimated 54%) in 2018. For eastern European, central Asian, Middle Eastern and North African regions, these groups accounted for around 95% of new infections.

The report also indicated that key populations include men who have sex with men; people who inject drugs; people in prisons and other closed settings; sex workers and their clients; and transgender people. In addition, given their life circumstances, a range of other populations may be particularly vulnerable, and at increased risk of HIV infection, such as adolescents girls and young women in southern and eastern Africa and indigenous peoples in some communities.

There is no cure for HIV infection. However, effective antiretroviral drugs ARVs can control the virus and help prevent onward transmission to other people. In this report, it was shared that at the end of 2018, an estimated 79% of people living with HIV knew their status. Over 62% were receiving antiretroviral therapy and 53% had achieved suppression of the HIV virus with no risk of infecting others.A scientific trail confirmed that if an HIV positive person adheres to an effective ART, the risk of transmitting the virus to their uninfected sexual partner can be reduced by 96% in 2011.

Following the results, WHO recommended that all people living with HIV should be offered ART with the aim of saving lives and significantly reducing HIV transmission? A 2019 study showed that HIV transmission risk through sex without condoms in serodiscordant men in same sex couples who were virally suppressed an on ART was effectively zero.Furthermore, the report stressed that oral PrEP of HIV which is the daily use of ARVs by HIV-negative people to block the acquisition of HIV has been effective in reducing HIV transmission among a range of populations, including serodiscordant heterosexual couples (where one partner is infected and the other is not), men who have sex with men, transgender women, high-risk heterosexual couples and people who inject drugs.

In 2018, according to this WHO report, 82% of the estimated 1.3 million pregnant women living with HIV globally received ARV drugs to prevent transmission to their children. A growing number of countries and territories are achieving very low rates of MTCT, with some formally validated for elimination of MTCT of HIV as a public health problem.Several countries with a higher burden of HIV infection are also progressing along the path to elimination.World Health Organization recommended that all people living with HIV be provided with lifelong ART in 2016, including children, adolescents and adults, pregnant and breastfeeding women, regardless of clinical status or CD4 cell count. By mid-2019, 182 countries had already adopted this recommendation, covering 99% of all people living with HIV globally.

Meanwhile, the UNIAIDS Programme Coordinating Board held a full-day ‘’thematic segment’’ on reducing the impact of AIDS on children and youth to discuss the many challenges facing children and young people living with, or at risk of acquiring HIV just recently. UNIAIDS Director Winnie Byanyima called to ramp up paediatric prevention, treatment and care, not just as a medical imperative, but as a matter of human rights.The discussion also called attention to the failures of the AIDS response in areas such as vertical transmission, testing of infants, paediatric treatment, and reduction of viral load among children living with HIV.

There was also a call to translate political will into political action, stressing in particular the need for governments to fully implement WHO guidelines and stop delivering suboptimal antiretroviral to pregnant women and children. A key focus of the discussion was the halted progress on prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission. Even where statistics show high levels of antiretroviral therapy initiation, too many women are dropping out of treatment during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and many others are unknowingly becoming infected with HIV during this period.

With the global vertical transmission rate still high at 12.7% in 2018, it is critical to test all HIV-exposed infants within 2 months after birth and deliver the test results to caregivers quickly, the caucus established.