Years of progress made in the prevention and treatment of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (Aids) has faltered worldwide, warns a new United Nations report that found that the past year saw the smallest annual decline in new HIV infections since 2016.
The new UN report titled “In Danger”, published on Wednesday, revealed that new HIV infections dropped by only 3.6 per cent between 2020 and 2021.
“In 2021, there were 1.5 million new HIV infections and 650,000 Aids-related deaths. This translates to 4,000 new HIV infections every day,” Mary Mahy, Epidemiology Team Lead, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids, said in a statement.