This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

New HIV variant underscores need to step up action: UNAIDS 

The identification of a fast-spreading HIV variant has highlighted the importance of stepping up action to halt the HIV pandemic and reach everyone with testing and treatment. 

That’s according to UNAIDS, which is leading the global fight to end HIV and AIDS. 

The agency made the appeal on Monday, citing newly published research from the Netherlands about a more transmissible and damaging variant of HIV which has been circulating in the country for years and remains receptive to treatment. 

UNAIDS said while the variant does not represent a major public health threat, it underscores the urgency of speeding up efforts as roughly 10 million people worldwide living with HIV are still not on antiretroviral therapy. 
Eamonn Murphy, the agency’s acting Deputy Executive Director said “we urgently need to deploy cutting-edge medical innovations in ways that reach the communities most in need.”

He added that “whether it’s HIV treatment or COVID-19 vaccines, inequalities in access are perpetuating pandemics in ways that harm us all.”

Stronger UN regulation could reduce truck and coach accidents 

Strengthened UN regulation on emergency braking for trucks and coaches is expected to further increase safety on the road, the Organization’s regional office for Europe said on Monday. 

UN Regulation No. 131, adopted nearly a decade ago, made it compulsory in the European Union (EU) for new trucks and coaches to use an Advanced Emergency Braking System (AEBS). 

Last month, a working party adopted new draft provisions under the regulation outlining stronger automated braking even if the driver was not alerted beforehand by a warning system.

If adopted by the World Forum on the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations this June, the revised regulation would enter into force by February 2023.

The new measures build on experience gained with AEBS in recent years and should significantly reduce accidents and fatalities occurring in traffic jams.

They will also restrict conditions under which emergency braking assistance systems can be switched off.

Systems will have to be automatically reactivated after 15 minutes, basically meaning they will be activated almost permanently.

WHO and Commonwealth strengthen collaboration

An agreement between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Commonwealth aims to strengthen collaboration to address the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine equity, advancing universal health coverage, and building resilient health systems.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Patricia Scotland, the British Baroness who heads the 54-member Commonwealth group of countries, signed the Memorandum of Understanding, or MoU, on Monday in Geneva.

It covers seven priority areas which include strengthening global health security, promoting the health of vulnerable groups, building a data partnership and creating space for innovation and exchange of knowledge. 

Commonwealth countries have a combined population of 2.5 billion, more than 60 per cent under age 29.

So far, more than 77 million COVID-19 cases have been reported in Commonwealth nations.  Overall, some 42 per cent of citizens are fully vaccinated.

Dianne Penn, UN News.