Positive news on AIDS is only half the story

The recent international Aids conference in Mexico (3-8 August) gave the British press the hook it needed to discuss some positive news on HIV and AIDS. And there is positive news to be had, writes Liz Tremlett.

The medical journal, The Lancet, reported that life expectancy for people with HIV has increased by an average of 13 years since the late 1990s because of better treatment.

The study, carried out by Bristol University, showed that someone diagnosed today at the age of 20 can expect to live for another 49 years.

This is dramatically different from the images of tombstones that those of us who were around in the 1980s can remember.

Even in the last ten years, the life expectancy of people on a suitable drug regime has increased by 13 years.

Perhaps, experts say, HIV and AIDS will become a chronic illness - rather like diabetes - something that you live with rather than immediately think that you're going to die from.

The other good news is that progress is being made in HIV prevention. UNAIDS reported that since 2005 there has been a tripling of prevention efforts, particularly focused on sex workers, gay men and drug users.

The UNAIDS report revealed that the percentage of HIV+ pregnant women receiving anti-retroviral drugs to prevent transmission to their unborn children rose from 14 per cent to 33 per cent between 2005 and 2007.

In that time, the number of new infections among children fell from 410,000 to 370,000.

Worldwide, the number of new HIV infections has dropped from 3 million in 2001 to 2.7 million last year.
But this is not the whole picture. If you live in the global north your chance of getting the right drug regime and living with HIV is very high. All of these impressive figures will apply to you.

If you live in the global south, they won't. Talk about a postcode lottery. Where you are born dictates the health care you get and whether you'll live or die. We may have moved on leaps and bounds in HIV care, but it is still a highly unjust world.

In the UK, you probably have the choice of 60 different drugs. In Africa, it's just 16. That's if you can get them. That's if you're ever tested. That's if you've even heard of HIV and AIDS.

One of the Millennium Development Goals is to provide universal access to anti-retroviral drugs. We won't hit that by 2015. We may hit it within my lifetime.

At the conference former US President Bill Clinton called for a 50 per cent increase in funding just to keep up with the cost of drugs and to make them affordable for everyone. He's right. But keeping up with the current need isn't enough. We must go further.

Why? Because of what's happening in the Middle East and particularly Latin America, where Progressio is working. Latin America is arguably on the cusp of the kind of HIV and AIDS explosion that we have seen over the last ten years in Africa.

A decade ago in Mexico there were 17 men affected by HIV and AIDS to every woman. Today that figure is 2.5 to every one. HIV has moved out of the gay community and entered wider society. If it follows the route taken in Africa, the need for testing, medication and health care in Latin America will increase dramatically.

In Africa, which is where 70 per cent of HIV+ people live, access to the right drugs is improving, but there are not enough health workers to administer them.

The G8 nations need to be held to account. Their promises made in Gleneagles in 2005 need to be acted upon. We cannot wait beyond 2015 to see universal access to anti-retroviral treatment.

Around the world 33 million people live with HIV. Two million died of AIDS last year.

But the situation is not hopeless. People's lives are being changed because of the intervention of organisations like Progressio.

Working through our partner organisations in 11 countries we are able to reach people who would otherwise never know about their HIV status or learn how the virus is transmitted. We are able to provide care and support.

But crucially, we are also able to lobby for change in draconian laws that see HIV+ women forcibly sterilised. We are also able to discuss the social stigma of HIV and AIDS with religious leaders in countries where being HIV+ can lead to you being stoned to death.

Whilst we welcome the good news about progress made in HIV prevention, we must ensure that living with HIV rather than dying from it, is the future for those in the global south. Nothing less will do.

Liz Tremlett is Progressio's Programme Support Officer.