UNAIDS warns of 7.7 million AIDS-related deaths without urgent action on inequalities

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has issued a stark warning that, unless leaders take urgent action to tackle the inequalities that drive the HIV pandemic, the world could face an additional 7.7 million AIDS-related deaths by 2030.

Responding to the report, Christine Stegling, Executive Director at Frontline AIDS, said:

“This report makes for sobering reading. Efforts to end AIDS are now so badly off track that, unless we see an urgent renewal of political attention and funding on HIV, an estimated 7.7 million people will die of AIDS-related illnesses this decade. An AIDS-related death every minute constitutes an emergency.

“If the global community allows this to happen, and fails to tackle the basic inequalities holding back progress on HIV, it is not just a moral failure but a strategic failure too.

“Preparing for the pandemics of the future will require many of the same capabilities as tackling those that the world is still grappling with today; surveillance, supply chains, treatment supply and rollout. Allowing the HIV response to slowly disintegrate with the job half-done won’t help us to end COVID-19, and it won’t help with the next pandemic that emerges either.

“All over the world, community organisations already have the capabilities needed to detect, prevent and respond to future health threats. To prepare effectively for future pandemics, the key is to invest in the responses to those the world is already dealing with. Frontline AIDS remains committed to ending AIDS during our lifetime.”

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HIV preventionUNAIDS