New York (dpa) - The United Nations on Friday called for cutting
HIV infection and AIDS-related deaths to zero by 2015 as it renews
efforts to combat the disease, 30 years after the first cases were
confirmed.
The disease was first diagnosed in the United States on June 5,
1981.
The UN General Assembly will next week hold first high-level
meetings on HIV/AIDS in 10 years, bringing government leaders and
civil society to look up progress and lapses in the global campaign
to combat the disease.
The UN released fresh AIDS-related data showing that more
than 34 million people worldwide were living with HIV last year, up
from 33.3 million in 2009.
An estimated 6.6 million people in low- and middle-income
countries were receiving anti-retroviral therapy at the end of 2010 -
a 22-fold increase since 2001, the last time the UN held its summit
on HIV/AIDS.
But another 9 million in those countries did not get the same
therapy at the end of 2010.
UN-AIDS, the UN organization dealing with the epidemic, said a
total of 65 million people became infected with the virus and nearly
30 million have died since 1981.
"Access to treatment will transform the AIDS response in the next
decade," said UN-AIDS executive director Michel Sidibe. "We must
invest in accelerating access and finding new treatment options."
Sidibe said anti-retroviral treatment has become a "bigger
game-changer" than ever before because it can stop people from dying
of AIDS, but also prevent transmission of HIV to women, men and
children.
The UN Children's Fund said Friday an estimated 16.6 million
children worldwide lost one or both parents to AIDS in 2010, despite
progress made in the anti-AIDS campaign.
Most of those children - 14.9 million - were from sub-Saharan
Africa, UNICEF was to reveal at an event in New York hosted jointly
with the US president's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and UN-AIDS.
Children affected with HIV, the AIDS virus, have had to deal with
enormous challenges of caring for sick relatives, the trauma from
loss of parents, economic and health problems.
The poorest households are also the most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS
and the disease can have heavy economic impacts on those households,
UNICEF said.
"These children have already experienced the tragedy of losing a
parent or a loved one to AIDS - only to be subjected to stigma,
discrimination and exclusion from school and social services," said
UNICEF Director Anthony Lake in a prepared statement.
"To help these children reach their full potential, we urgently
need to invest in national social protection programmes that fight
poverty and stigma, and which address the special needs of
HIV-affected families."
UNICEF called for discussion on lessons learned at country level
to support HIV affected children and their families at next week's
conference.
Other measures it is seeking include protection for children
against marginalization and discrimination, increase of children's
access to HIV prevention, treatment and health care.
Copyright 2011 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH