HIV mortality had declined in the last decade, but the rate of new infections remained the same.
The Global Burden of Disease Study published a report showing that the annual HIV mortality declined from 1.8 million people in 2005 to 1.2 million ten years later. However, the general rate of infections remained the same each year, with an annual number of approximately 2.6 million new cases.I eve
While the number of people living with HIV has also steadily increased, there are still vast discrepancies between countries when it comes to HIV mortality and HIV incidence.
The medical experts explain that everyone involved in population health needs to understand that the most important part in eradicating the disease is to stop new infections.
“If this trend of stubbornly high new infections continues, there will be significant challenges in meeting the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal for the world to witness the end of AIDS in less than 15 years,” said Christopher J.L. Murray, MD, DPhil, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
The statistics are based on a study performed by the University of Washington. The data was collected from population surveys, antenatal care clinics, national registration systems, and medical literature.
The researchers used epidemiological modeling software to combine the data with previous assessments of HIV mortality, so as to determine domestic and global trends over a period of ten years.
HIV incidence peaked in 1997 when 3.3 million new infections had been registered. Since then, the rate went down to 2.6 billion cases in 2005, but the situation stayed the same over the last decade with the same number of people getting infected each year.
On the other hand, the mortality rate went into a decline, which brought the total number of individuals living with HIV/AIDS on the whole globe to reach 38.8 million in 2015.
When compared to men, women are more likely to die at younger ages.
Even if the general mortality rate decreased in most of the nations, the scientists discovered two countries showing an increasing trend in both HIV mortality and HIV incidence: Indonesia and Philippines.
However, the current statistics show that the world has made enormous progress in fighting HIV, with a lot more that is left to be done when it comes to HIV incidence.
Over the next 15 years, low-income countries are expected to reach a plateau regarding the health resources designated to HIV.
Every year, the measures that need to be taken to prevent and treat HIV reach a value of approximately $36 billion. The target of these actions is to end AIDS by 2030, along with creating better medication and reducing the rates of infections.
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