Towards Universal Access Progress Report April 2007 Scaling Up Priority Hiv Aids Interventions In The Health Sector

The end of 2007 marks an important step in the history of the HIV epidemic. According to the WHO, UNAIDS and UNICEF report Towards universal access: Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector, nearly a million more people (950 000) were receiving treatment with antiretroviral therapy (ART) in low- and middle-income countries by year's end, bringing the total number of recipients to close to 3 million--a more than seven-fold increase over four years. The WHO/UNAIDS '3 by 5' initiative, which sought to have 3 million individuals on treatment by 2005, is widely credited with jump-starting the global effort to provide widespread ART access to people in need living in low- and middle-income countries. In 2007, that target was achieved a scant two years after the 2005 deadline. Not only has the number of people receiving treatment increased dramatically, but the pace of scale-up has also accelerated. The year 2007 also saw gains in access to interventions designed to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), as well as increased testing and counselling and greater country commitment to male circumcision. An increasing number of children are also benefiting from paediatric ART programmes. At the end of 2007, an estimated 200,000 children were receiving ART compared to 127,000 in 2006 and 75,000 in 2005. Nevertheless, countries are still far from meeting universal access goals. An estimated 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, and overall, ART coverage still remains low--only 31% of people estimated to be in need of treatment in low- and middle-income countries were receiving it in 2007. Moreover, weak health systems and, in particular, a critical shortage of health-care personnel and a lack of long-term sustained funding threaten efforts to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care. At the end of 2007, the gap between required and available funding was estimated to be US$ 8.1 billion. To meet universal access targets, funding will have to more than quadruple to US $35 billion in 2010 and to US $41 billion in 2015.--Publisher description.

The new report Towards universal access: Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector by WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS reviews the progress made in 2009 in scaling up access to selected health sector interventions for HIV prevention, treatment and care in low- and middle-income countries. It is the fourth in a series of annual progress reports published since 2006 in collaboration with international and national partners to monitor key components of the health sector response to the HIV epidemic worldwide.

"Knowing your epidemic" is essential for everyone involved in the response to HIV. Extensively illustrated with graphs and charts, this biennial report presents concise but comprehensive summaries of major issues in the global AIDS response. Annexes provide HIV estimates and data 2001 and 2007, and also country progress indicators.

It has now been 25 years since the apocryphal report in the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report dated June 5, 1981 entitled, “Pneumocystis Pneumonia - Los Angeles”, which announced what was to become HIV/AIDS. HIV has now affected virtually all countries that have looked for it and has had a devastating impact on the public health and medical care infrastructure around the world. HIV/AIDS has also disproportionately affected nations with the least capacity to confront it, especially the developing world nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the emerging republics of Eastern and Central Asia. The pandemic, unlike any other disease of our time, has had profound impacts on the practice of public health itself: bringing affected communities into decision making; demanding North-South partnerships and collaborations; and changing the basic conduct of clinical and prevention trials research. While much has been written in scholarly publications for medical, epidemiologic and disease control specialists, there is no comprehensive review of the public health impact and response to HIV/AIDS in the developing world. This edited volume seeks to systematically describe the emergence and form of the epidemics (epidemiology), the social, community and political response, and the various measures to confront and control the epidemic, with varying levels of success. Of particular importance are strategies that appear to have been useful in ameliorating the epidemic, while contrasting the situation in a neighboring country or region where contrasting prevention or care initiatives have had a deleterious outcome. Common to all responses has been the international multi-sectoral response represented by the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and the Gates Foundation, among others, to promote HIV pharmacologic therapy in resource-poor settings. The chapter authors will explore the political challenges in meeting HIV/AIDS prevention and care in concert with the public health realities in specific country and regional context.

HIV/AIDS reverses life expectancy gains, erodes productivity, consumes savings and dilutes growth efforts, threatening the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa.The report is the result of an extensive analytical and consultative process begun in 2006, that engaged more than 1,000 people from over 30 countries and many institutions mostly in Africa, as well as UN agencies, multilateral and bilateral donors, and foundations. The report reaffirms the Bank's commitment to combating HIV/AIDS in Africa, moving from its initial emergency response to the next phase, including the goal to provide at least US $250 million annually and to create an Africa HIV/AIDS Incentive Fund to enhance the evidence base, promote the multisectoral response and provide technical support, analysis and policy advice to countries.

This second edition of the book provides up-to-date information on new drugs, new proven HIV prevention interventions, a new chapter on positive prevention, and current HIV epidemiology. This definitive text covers all aspects of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, from basic science to medicine, sociology, economics and politics. It has been written by a highly respected team of South African HIV/AIDS experts and provides a thoroughly researched account of the epidemic in the region.