UNAIDS yesterday warned that, if the transformative measures needed to end AIDS are not taken, the world will also stay trapped in the novel coronavirus crisis and remain dangerously unprepared for the pandemics to come.

“This is an urgent call to action,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, adding that “progress against the AIDS pandemic, which was already off track, is now under even greater strain as the COVID-19 crisis continues to rage, disrupting HIV prevention and treatment services, schooling, violence prevention programmes and more.

“We cannot be forced to choose between ending the AIDS pandemic today and preparing for the pandemics of tomorrow. The only successful approach will achieve both. As of now, we are not on track to achieve either.”

The warning comes in a new World AIDS Day report by UNAIDS entitled “Unequal, unprepared, under threat: why bold action against inequalities is needed to end AIDS, stop COVID-19 and prepare for future pandemics.”

World AIDS Day is being observed today.

UNAIDS and global health experts emphasise that while business as usual would kill millions and leave the world trapped with colliding pandemics going on for decades, leaders can, by acting boldly and together to tackle the inequalities in which pandemics thrive, end AIDS, overcome the COVID-19 crisis and be protected from the pandemic threats of the future.

With regards to the Caribbean, health experts say the region has made steady progress against AIDS, especially in providing life-saving testing and treatment to people living with HIV. AIDS-related deaths have been cut in half (51 per cent) since 2010, while new infections declined by two per cent.

But they note that the region fell short of the 90-90-90 testing and treatment targets set for 2020. According to UNAIDS data, at the end of last year, 82 per cent of people living with HIV in the region knew their HIV status, 82 per cent of diagnosed people were receiving treatment and 89 per cent of those on treatment were virally suppressed.

“The data tell us that we need to reach people who are not aware of their HIV status. Critically for the Caribbean, 20,000 people know they are HIV positive but are not on treatment. We must invest in interventions to provide people with the care and support they need to start and stay on treatment,” said UNAIDS Caribbean Director Dr James Guwani.

UNAIDS said community-led organisations in the region have shown that, if they are adequately supported, they can play a major role in addressing inequalities in HIV service access through more efficient case finding and strengthened linkage to treatment and care, and by ensuring confidential and consistent psychosocial support along the continuum of care.

It said these organisations are especially adept at reaching key populations who, along with their sexual partners, accounted for 68 per cent of new HIV infections in the region in 2020.

Dr Guwani said the pandemic and natural disasters have disrupted health systems, exacerbating financial, technical and human resource gaps in health services. Overcoming these disruptions and continuing HIV service expansion towards the 2025 targets requires the full implementation of best practices in combination prevention, testing and treatment. This includes self-testing, rights based index testing, multi-month dispensing and a transition to more effective first-line treatment regimens.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has also fuelled gender-based violence, which, along with gender inequalities and stigma and discrimination, continue to impede the region’s HIV response.

UNAIDS said despite some policy progress towards eliminating gender- and sex-based discrimination, unequal gender relations remain the norm, and sexual minorities are exposed to harsh social stigma and discrimination.

“An integrated approach to HIV, sexual and reproductive health, and gender-based violence services would help reach young people at risk as well as neglected key and vulnerable populations, during COVID-19 and beyond,” Dr Guwani added.