Ahead of the International AIDS Conference in Munich, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a determined fight against HIV and its associated stigma in Europe. The number of new infections and deaths increased in the WHO Europe region, but the epidemic was not very evenly distributed, WHO regional director Hans Kluge told the German press agency (dpa).
“The situation in the European region is one of dramatic contrasts,” said the Belgian. Some countries are on the verge of halting the transmission of HIV and ending AIDS. In others, however, the death rate was unacceptably high. Delayed HIV diagnosis remains a problem today, and there is an urgent need to address the widespread stigmatization of those infected, which continues to impede progress.
Kluk hopes the World AIDS Conference, which begins in Munich on Monday, will bring the issue back into focus. “This conference comes at a time when the problem of HIV/AIDS seems to have disappeared in many parts of the world,” he said. There is talk of “AIDS fatigue” in an issue that once played a huge role worldwide. Today we must tackle a whole range of health challenges – but we cannot give up on the fight against HIV and AIDS.
The WHO Europe region includes about 50 countries, including the eastern part of the European Union. According to Kluge, a total of about three million people are living with HIV in the region, and 39 million worldwide.
According to the latest HIV/AIDS report by WHO Europe and the EU health agency ECDC, more than 110,000 people were diagnosed with HIV in the region in 2022, a small increase compared to 2021, but a significant decrease compared to the pre-corona year. 2019 corresponds. Most diagnoses in 2022 were made in the east of the region, with the highest per capita rates in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova.
According to the WHO/ECDC report, the number of AIDS-related deaths in Europe will continue to decline from 2021 to 2022. However, according to the WHO, the latest model calculations assume that the number of deaths and new cases, including undiagnosed ones, will rise again.
Overall, Kluge praised the world for having come a long way in the fight against HIV and AIDS. For decades, an HIV diagnosis was a death sentence for millions of people, but then antiretroviral therapy (ART) proved to be a “game changer”. Between 2000 and 2021, the global number of new HIV infections will decrease by 49 percent, and the number of HIV-related deaths will decrease by 61 percent.
“The fight against HIV/AIDS is both a success story and a cautionary tale,” Kluke said. For Europe, we have not yet reached our goal – not because of lack of resources, but because of intolerance and stigma.