The UNAIDS report, published on the occasion of the World Day for the Fight against the Disease, points out that in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has taken center stage, relegating AIDS screening to…

AIDS and Covid-19, two colliding pandemics

The fight against HIV has been greatly disrupted for several months by the appearance of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Text by: Agnès Rougier

6 mins

The UNAIDS report, published on the occasion of the World Day against the Disease, points out that in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has taken center stage, relegating AIDS screening and treatment. in the background.

The United Nations goals of “

ending AIDS as a public health problem by 2030

” seem difficult to meet unless conditions change.

Advertising

In all countries, the fight against HIV has suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic to varying degrees and for Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, the goal of ending AIDS by 2030 will not be tenable under the current circumstances.

Across the planet, the Covid-19 epidemic has disrupted both access to screening and access to care.

Across the countries surveyed, there were 35% fewer screenings between 2019 and 2020, 21% fewer HIV cases diagnosed, and 1.5 million more people infected.

For 40 years, the AIDS epidemic has killed more than 36 million people worldwide, including 680,000 in 2020. If current conditions do not change, the WHO announces 7.7 million deaths for the decade 2020-2030 .

Less screening, more contamination

During lockdowns, nightclubs, gathering places have been closed in many countries.

People have also stopped traveling, but staying at home does not mean stopping all sexual activity, on the contrary, and risky behavior has increased.

► Read also: The negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on AIDS screening in France

At the same time, the fight against HIV was particularly disrupted during lockdowns in the first half of 2020. On the one hand, prevention programs aimed at high-risk populations took time to adapt - the health services. Reductions in harm to people who use drugs have been halted in almost two-thirds of the 130 countries surveyed.

On the other hand, due to lack of screening, the number of new treatments has decreased and people who were already benefiting from antiretroviral treatments have experienced difficulties in obtaining drugs.

As for the pre-exposure prophylaxis programs (PreP), which preventively protect against contamination (taking medication - Truvada - in addition to the condom), they were extended in 2020 without reaching the global objectives.

Growing inequalities, an aggravating factor

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic everywhere worsened social and economic inequalities with

consequences for the fight against AIDS

“

The wider damage caused by the pandemic -
felt most severely by already disadvantaged populations

threatens to undermine global efforts to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030,

” the report read. 'UNAIDS.

According to the World Economic Forum 2021 report, Covid-19 has rolled back gender equality by at least a generation.

Dozens of studies have documented an increase in violence against women and girls during the pandemic and "

this increase in violence is associated with an increased risk of HIV infection and poorer health outcomes. the health of women living with HIV

”.

sub-Saharan Africa

, for the year 2020, 63% of new infections concerned women.

In this region, 220,000 girls and boys between the ages of 15 and 24 have been tested positive for HIV, and six out of seven new infections among adolescents aged 15 to 19 are among girls.

In question, the closure of schools, and the increase in abuses.

No more discrimination therefore no more contamination

Key populations, most vulnerable to AIDS, including people who inject drugs, sex workers, transgender people, prisoners, gay men and men who have sex with men, have found themselves at a disadvantage. once again marginalized during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, with an increased risk of contracting HIV.

Serge Douaumong, head of advocacy for the NGO group Coalition Plus, quotes Cameroon where the law punishes homosexuality.

The prevalence of AIDS is 3% in the entire population, but 37.2% among men who have sex with men.

“The

more hostility there is, the more there are laws that penalize the practices of homosexuals and sex workers

[...]

, the more HIV proliferates.
If we want to fight against HIV, it is absolutely necessary to put in place mechanisms to combat and limit the abuses towards these populations, so that they can go to the

[health] services

without fear of being arrested or judged, because they There are still countries where having condoms with you constitutes proof of homosexuality.

Taking control of the AIDS epidemic

“

Trusting affected communities has always proven to be a winning strategy

,” reads the UNAIDS report.

Decades of experience and evidence in the fight against HIV show that it works well when it is the communities themselves who organize themselves to fight against misinformation, to find people at risk or to distribute the drugs.

To achieve the 2030 goals, UNDISA calls on states to fund and support effective responses to HIV, and to integrate them into health, social protection, humanitarian and pandemic response systems. For Professor Paul Farmer, co-founder of the NGO Partners in Health, the strategy of the Rwandan National Plan (Rwanda HIV / AIDS targets), launched in 2015, is a success in this area.

UNAIDS

recalls that in order to effectively fight AIDS and other epidemics, five elements are essential and require greater attention from world leaders: “

(1) Community-led and community-based infrastructure;
(2) equitable access to drugs, vaccines and health technologies;
(3) support for workers on the front lines of the pandemic;
(4) human rights at the center of responses to the pandemic;
and (5) people-centered data systems that highlight inequalities

AIDS and Covid-19, two colliding pandemics

AIDS and Covid-19, two colliding pandemics

Less screening, more contamination

Growing inequalities, an aggravating factor

No more discrimination therefore no more contamination

Taking control of the AIDS epidemic

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest