On World AIDS Day, Biden administration announces new global strategy to end HIV/AIDS by 2030

CNN
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On World AIDS Day, the Biden administration renewed its focus on ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030, announcing a new five-year strategy for the global response of the United States.

The administration said Thursday it is accelerating its response to HIV/AIDS with new global goals including achieving key treatment goals for different ages, genders and population groups; supporting UNAIDS goals to reduce new HIV infections; and eliminating equality gaps for specific groups, including adolescent girls, young women and children.

“Our work is not finished. HIV remains a serious threat to global health security and economic development,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in the new strategy. “Our progress can easily be derailed if we lose focus or conviction, or if we fail to address the injustices, many fueled by stigma and discrimination and criminal laws, that stand in our way.”

Also on Thursday, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, reported supported antiretroviral treatment for more than 20 million men, women and children by September 30. That’s up from 18.96 million in fiscal year 2021.

About 64.7 million people received HIV testing services with program support, and 5.5 million babies were prevented from being born with HIV, according to PEPFAR’s latest results.

President Joe Biden requested $850 million for HIV prevention and care programs in his 2023 budget, and proposed creating a nearly $10 billion national PrEP program that would guarantee pre-exposure prophylaxis and services for uninsured and underinsured people.

On World AIDS Day 2021, President Joe Biden exposed the new national HIV/AIDS strategy, which states: “We are within reach of eliminating HIV transmission.” The goals of the US strategy include preventing new HIV infections, improving health outcomes for people living with HIV, reducing health disparities, and establishing more coordinated efforts to address the epidemic.

Globally, progress towards ending HIV and AIDS is uneven. On Thursday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries to implement global strategies for HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, saying at Twitter“With courageous leadership, we can provide care for everyone!”

Despite ambitious goals to eradicate HIV, there is still no vaccine or cure, although the new diagnosis has made diagnosis easier and even helped prevent infection.

In the United States, there are wide disparities in access to treatment, and blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately affected by HIV. More than 1.1 million people in the United States had HIV at the end of 2019, according to the data US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.