World AIDS Day 2025

#World #AIDS #Day

World AIDS Day is observed on December 1 by the global scientific community, clinicians, families and volunteers to remember the victims of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and promote awareness efforts to end it.

AIDS is spread through close sexual contact, infected blood or sometimes airborne transmission.

Despite major scientific advances to curb its spread in recent times, amid cuts in global funding, it has sparked warnings from global health experts that it could lead to a resurgence of the epidemic in the heaviest-burdened regions.

Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, approximately 44.1 million people have died of related diseases globally, and an estimated 91.4 million people have been diagnosed with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).

According to Euronews, 40.8 million people are living with HIV globally according to the latest data, and it will kill about 630,000 people in 2024.

World AIDS Day 2025 reflects four major milestones over the past four decades in the fight against the most devastating epidemic in human history.

In 1984, the first European surveillance was released, and a year later, HIV testing was introduced in the UK.

After years of research, scientists finally learned about a highly active antiretroviral therapy known as HART. A triple-drug regimen emerged as a highly effective therapy for AIDS.

It helped restore the immune system by suppressing the virus and slowing the onset of AIDS in people with HIV, and is considered a milestone in changing the diagnosis of HIV from a fatal diagnosis to a curable, chronic condition.

As a result, death rates fell in countries where the heart was accessible, but simultaneously, the number of HIV cases increased due to increased testing and diagnosis.

In 2003, PEPFER was introduced, the largest global health program to combat a single disease to date.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPPER, was established with initial funding of $15 billion over five years to prevent and stop HIV/AIDS in areas with the highest prevalence rates.

Pfeffer has saved more than 26 million lives in 50 countries so far.

Additionally, the first daily pill to prevent the risk of HIV, PrEP, was introduced to people at high risk of infection, such as transgender people and sex workers who are most vulnerable to the virus.

Studies have highlighted that it can reduce the risks of HIV by about 99% and by about 74% from injections.

To fight against HIV/AIDS, UNAID introduced a program titled ’90-90-90′ cure for all.

The UN program, which was introduced in 2014, has set a 2020 target for 90 percent of patients worldwide to know their HIV status with the help of antiretroviral treatment.

The United Nations General Assembly also adopted these goals and said that meeting these goals would mean ending the epidemic by 2030.

However, only 19 countries globally have fully or partially achieved the 90-90-90 targets, excluding Sweden, which achieved these targets in 2016, according to UNAIDS data.

Amid global health cuts in funding to combat HIV/AIDS, global health experts have warned that a lack of funding could derail years of work to fight the epidemic, triggering other long-term health crises.

Young adults are increasingly vulnerable, accounting for nearly all new HIV infections diagnosed globally among women of all ages in the past year.

Additionally, the African continent is the most affected, accounting for more than two-thirds of all cases.

In 2024, 63% of new HIV infections in Africa were diagnosed in women, while in all other regions, about 73% of cases were reported in men.

The risk scenario shows that 3,300—4,000 adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24 become infected with HIV in 2024.

The situation suggests that authorities must act urgently to overcome barriers and transform the AIDS response, as they confront the global burden of 40.8 million HIV cases, which claimed nearly 630,000 lives in 2024 alone.