KINGSTON, Jamaica — A new UNAIDS report launched today ahead of next week’s UN High-level Meeting on HIV has revealed that between 2010 and 2020, AIDS-related deaths in the Caribbean have declined by 51 per cent.

The report noted that during the same 10-year period, new HIV infections in the region decreased by 28 per cent.

In 2020 members of key population communities and their sexual partners accounted for 60 per cent of new infections, the report revealed. It added that 40 per cent of new infections occurred among the remaining population.

As of the end of 2020, 82 per cent of people living with HIV in the Caribbean were aware of their status, while two-thirds (67 per cent) of all people living with HIV were on treatment.

Meanwhile, 50 per cent of people living with HIV in the region were virally suppressed last year.

Director of the UNAIDS Caribbean Office, Dr James Guwani, noted that most countries in the region stepped up around financing treatment and transitioned to providing HIV treatment to all diagnosed people.

However, he said increased focus is needed on combination prevention and psychosocial support for people living with HIV.

“Forty years into the AIDS response, we know that our challenge is about far more than testing and treatment,” Dr Guwani said. “We need to do a better job at addressing the social determinants that lead to new infections, delayed diagnosis and poor adherence.”

The report concluded that four decades after the first cases of AIDS were reported, dozens of countries have achieved or exceeded the 2020 targets set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2016.