A group fighting for the rights of people living with HIV has released a new report on World Aids Day. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on HIV and AIDS has published its report “HIV and Quality of Life – What do we mean? And how to we achieve it?” calling for a "new perspective" that recognises HIV to be a long-term condition, but one which poses specific health and well-being challenges.
Since the discovery of HIV at the beginning of the 1980s, it has been one of the greatest global health problems. HIV and AIDS places an increasing burden on the health of the population, and causes further socioeconomic problems for individuals, families, communities, and governments in many countries.
Thanks to significant improvements in scientific understanding, medical innovation and clinical management of HIV for many people in the developed world, HIV is now considered a manageable chronic condition. With increasing numbers of people with the condition living into older age than ever before, HIV is now recognised as one of the greatest health success stories in recent times.
The report notes that people who receive the most up-to-date treatments can usually enjoy full social and professional lives, as long as they follow their treatment plans, and that those who receive an early diagnosis and effective treatment can expect to live nearly as long as people who do not have the virus.
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In 2020 it is estimated by UNAIDS that 38.4 million people worldwide are living with HIV, with 6.1 million people living without knowing their status. It is also estimated that three quarters of all people living with HIV have access to antiretroviral treatment, approximately 10 million people do not. Only half (52%) of children living with HIV have access to life-saving medicine, and the inequality in HIV treatment coverage between children and adults is increasing rather than narrowing.
The AIDS pandemic took a life every minute in 2021, with 650,000 AIDS-related deaths despite effective HIV treatment and tools to prevent, detect and treat opportunistic infections, according to information released by the All-Party Parliamentary Group HIV and AIDS.
Steve Brine MP, co-chair of the all party parliamentary group, said: “We have come a long way in the past 40 years and with 2030 so close, now is the time to double our efforts to eliminating new transmissions of HIV, the stigma that surrounds HIV and to ensure the 38.4 million people living with HIV can live the same quality of life as those who don’t live with HIV.
"As the response to ending AIDS and HIV continues into its fourth decade, our work is not just about prolonging the lives of people living with HIV. It is about ensuring that those lives are healthy, happy and fulfilled. Quality of life is not a ‘luxury’ or ‘optional extra’. It is a human right – one that is more important than ever. “
