Selv om 2.400 personer hver dag smittes med den farlige hiv-virus, der kan føre til aids i udbrud, er de senere års fremskridt mod epidemien så markante, at verdensorganisationen mener, en aids-fri menneskehed er i sigte.
GENEVA, 30 November 2012: United Nations officials are marking World AIDS Day with a call for building on recent successes and pressing ahead to get to zero – zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths – by 2015.
“On this World AIDS Day, let us commit to build on and amplify the encouraging successes of recent years to consign HIV/AIDS to the pages of history,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day, observed annually on 1 December.
The World AIDS Day Report for 2012, he noted, reveals significant progress in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS in the past two years.
The number of people accessing life-saving treatment rose by 60 per cent and new infections have fallen by half in 25 countries – 13 of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition, AIDS-related deaths have dropped by a quarter since 2005, according to the report, published by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
“Vi er gået fra fortvivlelse til håb”
“We have moved from despair to hope. Far fewer people are dying from AIDS,” said the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé.
“Twenty-five countries have reduced new infections by more than 50 per cent. I want these results in every country”, noted he.
“The pace of progress is quickening. It is unprecedented – what used to take a decade is now being achieved in just 24 months. Now that we know rapid and massive scale up of HIV programmes is possible, we need to do more,” he said in his message for the Day.
The Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, noted that progress must strengthen the determination to create a world free of AIDS.
“HIV and AIDS can be conquered through renewed commitment and sustained solidarity. For this, we need to use every resource as best we can and draw on all available evidence,” she said.
The agency works for the ‘triple zero’ goal by supporting countries to improve HIV and age-appropriate sexuality education for young people, as well as tackling gender inequalities since women and girls are severely affected by HIV and bear the greatest burden of care.
Young people aged 15-24 are the group most affected by HIV, accounting for 40 per cent of all new adult HIV infections, according to UNAIDS. In 2011, about five million young people were living with HIV worldwide, with more than 2.400 being newly infected every day.
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