World ‘dangerously unprepared’ for future pandemics, UN body warns

In a report to mark World Aids Day (December 1) UNAIDS says that health inequalites exposed by the Covid 19 pandemic could see the world facing over 7 million AIDS-related deaths in the next 10 years if urgent action is not taken

URGENT CALL: The COVID-19 pandemic must not be an excuse to divert investment from HIV says UNAIDS report

THE HEAD of a United Nations body focused on ending HIV as a public health threat has said that if urgent action is not taken to tackle global health inequalities the world could face 7.7 million AIDS-related deaths over the next 10 years.

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director for UNAIDS was speaking following the publication of a report that the organisation said was aimed at being “a wake-up call on the AIDS emergency” as millions hold events as part of World Aids Day (December 1).

The report highlighted concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic is deepening the inequalities that have long driven the HIV epidemic, putting vulnerable children, adolescents, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers at increased risk of missing life-saving HIV prevention and treatment services.

It said there is a significant risk that political attention to and financing for HIV will drift as world leaders devote resources to tackling the pandemic.

The report, called Unequal, Unprepared and Under Threat argues that bold action is needed by world leaders to end aids as well as prepare for future pandemics.

STARK WARNING: Winnie Byanyima

It said: “In this time of COVID-19, there is a significant risk that political attention to and financing for HIV will drift. If we do not take the steps needed to tackle the inequalities driving HIV today, not only will we fail to end the AIDS pandemic, we also will leave our world dangerously unprepared for future pandemics.”

Byanyima said: “Progress against the AIDS pandemic, which was already off track, is now under even greater strain as the COVID-19 crisis continues to rage, disrupting HIV prevention and treatment services, schooling, violence-prevention programmes and more.”

She added: “We cannot be forced to choose between ending the AIDS pandemic today and preparing for the pandemics of tomorrow. The only successful approach will achieve both”.

Unequal, Unprepared and Under Threat found that some countries, including some with the highest rates of HIV, have made “remarkable progress” against AIDS.

However, it pointed out that new HIV infections are not falling fast enough to stop the pandemic, with 1.5 million new HIV infections in 2020 and growing HIV infection rates in some countries.

“In this time of COVID-19, there is a significant risk that political attention to and financing for HIV will drift. If we do not take the steps needed to tackle the inequalities driving HIV today…..we also will leave our world dangerously unprepared for future pandemics.”
Unequal, Unprepared and Under Threat, UNAIDS report

The research also concluded that Infections follow lines of inequality. Adolescent girls account for six out of every seven new HIV infections in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to UNICEF, children and adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa account for 89 percent of new HIV paediatric infections and 88 percent of HIV-positive children and adolescents worldwide. The continent also accounted for 88 percent of all AIDS-related child fatalities.

UNICEF has also found that COVID-19 caused substantial interruptions in HIV services in many countries in early 2020. In high-burden nations, HIV newborn testing decreased by 50 to 70%, and new treatment initiations for children under 14 years of age decreased by 25 to 50%.

The UNAID report examined five critical elements that it said must be urgently implemented to halt the AIDS pandemic but are under-funded and under-prioritized. These include community-led and community-based infrastructure, equitable access to medicines, vaccines and health technologies and supporting workers on the pandemic front lines.

In the foreword to Unequal, Unprepared and Under Threat Helen Clark, Co-Chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response said: “Pandemics find space to grow in the fractures of divided societies…work to end pandemics cannot succeed unless world leaders take the steps that will enable them to do so.”