Mary Mahy, who is lead of the epidemiology team at UNAIDS and one of the report authors, is particularly alarmed by the HIV medication statistics for children.
Mahy and others familiar with the HIV/AIDS epidemic cite several possible reasons for the failure to meet its targets.But there are other pre-pandemic issues: It has always been difficult to identify children and adults who are infected and need treatment.The report authors also believe governments around the world are not doing enough to make a dent in the epidemic.
Chewe Luo, associate director and chief of the HIV/AIDS section at UNICEF, believes, "To improve access to treatment starts with being able to identify the infected.".
Especially during the pandemic, it's been hard to test pregnant women to see if they're HIV-positive and then to provide treatment to prevent their children from being infected.Gilles Van Cutsem, current lead of the international AIDS working group and a senior HIV adviser for Doctors Without Borders not affiliated with the report.
Even if they are tested, it can take days for diagnostic results to come back — and families don't always follow up to get the diagnosis, making it hard to start treatment.
Yet the report authors aren't resigned to a future of minimal progress.Though the 2020 results of the "Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS Free" final report are disappointing, the groups involved have set even more ambitious targets for 2025 — to not only reverse current trends but make true progressThey propose a "95-95-95" Global AIDS Strategy to get back on track in wiping out the HIV/AIDS epidemic among children, adolescents and young women
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