Last year, world leaders came together at the United Nations in New York and agreed on a groundbreaking Political Declaration on HIV and Aids. That plan takes on the inequalities that drive the pandemic and will dramatically reduce new HIV infections and Aids-related deaths by 2025 and end the Aids pandemic as a global health threat by 2030 -- if world leaders fulfil it. But the world -- especially the Asia and Pacific region -- is not on track.
Data just released in the new Unaids report, "In Danger: Unaids Global Aids Update 2022", reveals that the world is not on course to end Aids by 2030. The 3.6% reduction in global new HIV infections in 2021 is the smallest annual fall since 2016. On the current trajectory, there will be a projected 1.2 million new HIV infections worldwide in 2025, more than three times higher than the target of 370,000. In Asia and the Pacific -- the world's most populous region -- Unaids data now shows new HIV infections are rising where they had been falling. Climbing infections in these regions are alarming.
Globally, new HIV infections have increased in 38 countries since 2015. In Asia and the Pacific region, Philippines and Malaysia are among countries with rising epidemics among key populations, particularly in key locations.
