The world is experiencing more than one pandemic: AIDS is a pandemic too.

By Dr. S.N. Mothi, Chairman & Founder Trustee, Asha Kirana Charitable Trust, Hospital & Research Centre, Mysuru

Gains in ending the AIDS pandemic are at risk of being lost as attention has been diverted to COVID-19. AIDS is a pandemic, and it hasn’t gone away. The AIDS pandemic did not take a break during COVID-19.

While the world was preoccupied with the COVID-19 pandemic, the AIDS response has soldiered on. Nimble, community-centred and community-led AIDS responses have proved to be resilient to the disruptions of COVID. But these disruptions have taken a toll. Results are slipping.

* People still became infected, especially key populations and adolescent girls and young women.

* People still died from AIDS-related illnesses.

* People living with and affected by HIV still faced discrimination and violations of their human rights.

Forty years since the first AIDS cases were reported, HIV still threatens the world. Today, the world is off track from delivering on the shared commitment to end AIDS by 2030 not because of lack of knowledge or tools to beat AIDS, but because of structural inequalities that obstruct proven solutions to HIV prevention and treatment.

Economic, social, cultural and legal inequalities must be ended as a matter of urgency if we are to end AIDS by 2030.

In 2015, all countries pledged to reduce inequalities within and between countries as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026: End Inequalities, End AIDS and the Political Declaration on AIDS adopted at the 2021 United Nations High-Level Meeting on AIDS have ending inequalities at their core.

Every minute that passes, we are losing a precious life to AIDS. We don’t have time…

Strategies that could be implemented towards our effort to end the pandemic are:

1. Re-commit to end HIV: Persistent inequalities and the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic require a renewed effort to end HIV as a public health threat by 2030.

2. Tackle HIV and COVID-19 together: We must confront the special challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic for people living with HIV.

3. Focus on equality: We must ensure that everyone, everywhere has equal access to HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care, including COVID-19 vaccinations and services.

4. Concentrate on those left behind: WHO recommends a renewed focus on countries and populations that are still missing out in the global response to HIV and AIDS. These include the diverse groups of people being marginalised in each country, including “key” populations of people who are at high risk.

37,700,000:               Estimated number of people living with HIV in 2020

680,000:               People died from HIV-related causes in 2020

1,500,000:               People were newly infected in 2020

73% of adults living with HIV received lifelong Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) in 2020

[WHO World AIDS Day web page data]

Both HIV & COVID require social and cultural responsibilities to be fulfilled by the communities by expelling the discrimination and inequalities. The citizens have to show Citizens Social Responsibility (CSR).

A story on how these two pandemics have shown no respite…

Rajeshwari, who got to know that she is HIV positive during her pregnancy, delivered identical twins wherein one child turned out to be HIV positive and the other HIV negative. This incident happened during early days of our work in Asha Kirana in 1997-98. Her husband was a Government Officer,  a gentleman, who took care of his family for more than 25 years living with HIV. There was not a single reason for Rajeshwari and her kids to worry about HIV and its complications. Her husband was the only strong support to her family. The COVID first wave, the thunderbolt, hit the family. Her husband was diagnosed to have COVID positive with renal complications and he passed away in just 7 days of COVID infection. It is past 1 year, 4 months and the family still couldn’t come to reality that the sole pillar of the family is no more…

Mother and daughter is surviving with HIV…but the non-HIV father is no more…