AIDS/HIV

Inequalities will prevent the world from meeting agreed global targets on AIDS, but a “feminist route map” can get countries back on track, the UN agency leading the fight against the disease said in a report published on Tuesday.

Some 110,00 youth under age 19 died last year from AIDS-related causes, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday, noting that coupled with 310,000 newly infected, the total number of young people living with HIV stands at 2.7 million. 

The UN health agency on Thursday recommended the use of a new long-acting “safe and highly effective” prevention option for people at “substantial risk” of HIV infection, known as cabotegravir (CAB-LA).

A new report issued on Wednesday by the UN agency leading the fight against HIV/AIDS shows that people living with the human immunodeficiency virus face the double jeopardy of HIV and COVID-19 – as widening inequalities continue to prevent them from accessing services. 

Based on new evidence, the United Nations health agency on Monday announced it was recommending the use of the antiretroviral drug dolutegravir (DTG) – which, with other medication, treats HIV/AIDS – as the preferred first- and second-line treatment for all cases, including pregnant women and those who have the potential to give birth.  

The UN agency leading the global effort to end AIDS, said on Tuesday that a new case of a patient who has been “functionally cured” of HIV infection, is greatly encouraging, but there is still a long way to go before the illness can be eradicated.

Thirty years after the first World AIDS Day, the HIV response stands at a crossroads,  UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said, marking this year’s commemorations.

The United Nations in Zimbabwe is reaffirming that people living with HIV and AIDS need to continue with antiretroviral (ARV) therapy to manage their infections, after a local preacher reportedly claimed that he had received divine revelation of an herbal cure.