World AIDS Day 2020: Remarkable progress but the fight continues

In the last 30 years remarkable progress has been made in developing treatments that have helped transform HIV into a manageable chronic condition for many people around the world. While we don’t yet have a cure, those who have access to modern HIV treatments can now live long and full lives thanks to investment in research, treatments and public health initiatives.

This World AIDS Day, UNAIDS released a new report reflecting on this incredible progress but it also highlights the great inequalities regarding access to treatments and infection rates around the world.

Today, two-thirds of all new infections and deaths occur on the continent of Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa girls and women are particularly vulnerable to infection. In addition, there are rising levels of infection in East Asia and Latin America among at-risk populations.

Access to treatment is also an area where we see imbalances both between developed and developing nations but also within some of the world’s wealthiest countries. UNAIDS estimates that 13 million people still do not have access to the antiretroviral therapies (ART). 

The report argues that while science has been at the core of the battle against the disease – discovering and developing treatments, prophylactics, and diagnostics other factors have hampered the potential of these weapons. These factors include:

At Cromos Pharma we celebrate the great achievements made to date and the valuable lessons learned in the battle against HIV which have helped inform our current approach to beating COVID-19. Yet we know HIV/AIDS is still a threat and are proud to play a role in supporting our clients in their clinical research focused on better medicines, prophylactic treatments, generics to help increase accessibility to treatments and we hope one day a cure.

Read more:

UNAIDS

FDA Statement on World AIDS Day 2020

EMA World AIDS Day 2020

NIH Statement on World AIDS Day 2020