The fight against the corona virus is currently often superimposed on the fight against HIV. Out of concern about the further spread of Sars-CoV-2, the entire World AIDS Conference, which should have taken place in the Californian cities of San Francisco and Oakland, was moved to the Internet for the first time in 2020. Two pandemic years later, the next edition of the conference, which was held for the first time in 1985 and is considered the world’s largest scientific meeting on the subject of AIDS, starts on Friday, July 29th. This time it will take place in Montreal, Canada, until August 2nd – at least partly again with experts and participants on site.
“As part of the corona pandemic, there have been dramatic reductions in HIV testing and counseling facilities internationally,” says Jürgen Rockstroh, professor at the University Hospital in Bonn, who is taking part in the World AIDS Conference. “Necessary laboratory controls have been stretched. Bottlenecks in the supply of medicines have been widely reported. In addition, many researchers, but also public health colleagues, have had to focus on Covid, so that many resources have been lost for HIV.«
Millions of lives are threatened by HIV
This is reflected in the figures: The fight against HIV and AIDS has come to a standstill worldwide, according to a report published by the United Nations Program to Fight AIDS (UNAIDS) before the start of the conference. In some regions where the number of new infections had previously fallen, they are now rising again; Millions of lives are threatened.
Around 1.5 million people worldwide were newly infected with the HI virus last year. This means that the number of new infections has fallen compared to the previous year, but only by 3.6 percent – less than at any time since 2016. In Eastern Europe, parts of Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, among others, the number of new infections has even increased. Progress has also stalled in East and South Africa. There has been a decline in infections, for example, in West and Central Africa and in the Caribbean.