A representative of ZMINA took part in the international conference in Munich on HIV-AIDS
The AIDS 2024 conference was held at the end of July in Munich, Germany. The Human Rights Centre ZMINA was invited to participate by the Ukrainian Office of UNAIDS and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. Representative of ZMINA, Project Manager Iryna Yuzyk, along with a group of media professionals from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, took part in the large international conference dedicated to HIV-AIDS.
Photo: Iryna Yuzyk, Project Manager of the Human Rights Centre ZMINAThis year, UNAIDS presented a report on the global AIDS epidemic, which states that defeating the epidemic by 2030 is realistic, some countries are already on this path, and others can follow.
In 2023, HIV infected fewer people than at any time since the late 1980s – 1.3 million new cases were registered. In 2023, nearly 31 million people (77% of all people living with HIV) received antiretroviral therapy, a public health success that reduced AIDS-related deaths to the lowest level since the peak in 2004 (approximately 630 thousand people).
However, progress is uneven. The global response to HIV has been relatively rapid in sub-Saharan Africa and slow in other parts of the world. The number of new cases of HIV infection is increasing in at least 28 countries. These regions are: Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa.
Photo: Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDSAn effective fight against the epidemic requires the political will of world leaders. Today, the total amount of resources allocated to the fight against HIV-AIDS is at its lowest level in more than a decade, according to UNAIDS. According to the organization’s forecasts, if prevention programs are left at the current level, in 2050 there will already be about 46 million people living with HIV in the world.
“It was a very interesting experience. The event was for 15 thousand participants. Most of people are from the Global South, from that part of the world that we don’t mention much daily and with which we rarely cross paths. Immersion in the subject of the HIV-AIDS epidemic and the fight against it,” Iryna Yuzyk shared her impressions of the conference.
