Sr. Joan

HIV/AIDS High Level Meeting

Sr. Joan and Sr. Masheti from Kenya attended the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS June 2008. In assessing the global situation, the positive side of the ledger included:

• More mothers now have access to interventions that prevent transmission to their infants;
• More HIV-infected children are receiving treatment and care programs;
• At least 3 million people now have access to anti-retroviral treatment in poor or middle-income countries, an increase of 42% in 2007.

However, huge challenges still remain to fill the gaps in coverage in both treatment and prevention, particularly in developing countries: in 2007 an estimated 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV, and 2.1 million AIDS deaths had occurred. Last year twice as many people were in need of anti-retroviral treatment and going without, as there were receiving it. Also many speakers called for greater attention to the gender aspects of the disease, as women and girls now made up a majority of newly infected cases, over 60 percent in sub-Saharan Africa.  Other government delegations stressed that the pandemic was a public health and development issue, and that an effective response for the long term must include the strengthening of public health systems.  This means stemming the drain of trained health workers from developing countries to wealthier ones, hand in hand with strong national strategies to fight HIV/AIDS.