74 countries post hike in new HIV infections ­— study

DURBAN, South Africa – Seventy-four countries, including the Philippines, have seen an increase in new HIV infections over the past decade, threatening efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, a new global study showed.

Based on a study from the Global Burden of Disease collaborative network, published in The Lancet HIV, the 74 countries saw increases in “age-standardized rate of new infections” between 2005 and 2015. 

Among them are Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya, the Philippines, Cambodia, Mexico and Russia.

The study, released at the 21st International AIDS Conference being held in Durban, also showed that while the global number of new cases continues to decline, the pace has greatly slowed. 

New infections of HIV went down by an average of only 0.7 percent per year between 2005 and 2015, compared to the 2.7 percent drop per year between 1997 and 2005.

The study was based on findings from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study, coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.

HIV/AIDS “remains very high by any standard,” United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS founding executive director Peter Piot said, commenting on the study.

“The continuing high level of incidence of new infections of HIV in the world is the most disturbing fact that has been announced here at the conference,” he said.

“It means really that AIDS is not yet over and that HIV/AIDS remains one of the biggest public health threats of our time.”

Piot, now director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has underscored the need to study the HIV/AIDS situation in the late 1990s when there was a decrease in new infections although anti-retroviral therapy (ART) was not yet available then.

“The continuing high rate of over two million new HIV infections represents a collective failure which must be addressed through intensified prevention efforts and continued investment in HIV vaccine research,” he said.