WHO: 1.8 million HIV cases in 2016

The number of suspected HIV cases recorded in 2016 reached 1.8 million despite efforts aiming at eliminating the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Monday.
In a statement, the WHO said that as many as 36.7 million people around the world are infected with HIV, but more than half of them,19.5 million, are getting the therapy medicines they need to suppress the HIV virus .
The WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that rising levels of resistance to HIV drugs would undermine promising progress against the global HIV epidemic and sustainable development if no action is taken.
Director of the HIV/AIDS Department and the Global Hepatitis Programme (GHP) Gottfried Hirnschall pointed out that lack of immediate treatment along with their high prices lead to emergence of 1.5 million new cases over the next five years, stressing that tuberculosis is the leading cause of death of HIV victims .
Central and Eastern Africa considered to be the most advanced region in dealing with HIV in spite of containing half of the world's HIV cases as infection rate decreased with 29 percent where as infected cases in Eastern Europe and central Asia have been risen with 60 percent in Russia, Albania, Armenia and Kazakhstan, Hirnschall added.
A group of scientists had confirmed in a number of medical studies that there have been drugs that may be effective in treatment of HIV including antibodies in cows' bodies.
A team of US researchers had also found a new technique in which rats' DNA can be used to eradicate the HIV virus.
The allocated budget for dealing with HIV has been estimated at dlr. 19 billion in 2016 but it was proven to be insufficient within the need for additional dlr. 7 billion till 2020.
Number of people infected with HIV since the 1980s has reached 76.1 million while 35 million people have died.

Source: Mena