AIDS-related deaths decline; 19.5 million people on life-saving treatment: UN report

ASTANA. KAZINFORM The scales have tipped for the first time in the fight against AIDS as more than half of all people living with the HIV virus now have access to treatment, while AIDS-related deaths have nearly halved since 2005, according to a new United Nations report, Kazinform has learnt from WAM .

"We met the 2015 target of 15 million people on treatment and we are on track to double that number to 30 million and meet the 2020 target," said Michel Sidibe, the Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), in a press statement.

"We will continue to scale up to reach everyone in need and honour our commitment of leaving no one behind," he added.

The UNAIDS report titled 'Ending Aids: Progress Towards the 90-90-90 targets', gives a comprehensive analysis of the 2014 targets to accelerate progress so that by 2020, 90 per cent of all HIV-infected people know their status, 90 percent of all HIV-diagnosed people are accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) and 90 percent of those taking ART are virally suppressed.

It states that last year, 19.5 million of the 36.7 million people living with HIV had access to treatment and AIDS-related deaths have fallen from 1.9 million in 2005 to one million in. With continued scale-up, this progress puts the world on track to reach the global target of 30 million people on treatment by 2020, according to the report.