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HIV treatment tablets which are given for free to patients in the Philippines. Sherbien Dacalanio via PA Images

For the first time, over half of people with HIV are taking AIDS drugs

The United Nations report’s authors claimed that the data proved the “scales have finally tipped”.

THE NUMBER OF AIDS-related deaths have been halved in the past 12 years, and more people than ever are receiving treatment for HIV, in a shift that’s seen as a victory against the stigmatised virus for which there’s no known cure.

AIDS claimed a million lives in 2016 – almost half the 2005 toll that marked the peak of the deadly epidemic.

The information was published in a United Nations report today, ahead of an AIDS science conference opening in Paris this Sunday.

“AIDS-related deaths have fallen from 1.9 million in 2005 to one million in 2016,” said the authors, adding that “for the first time the scales have tipped”.

“In 2016, 19.5 million of the 36.7 million people living with HIV had access to treatment,” said the UNAIDS global roundup. That data marks the first time that more than half of infected people were receiving anti-retroviral treatment, which subdues the AIDS virus but does not kill it.

Prince Harry visits School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Prince Harry meets Tlotlo Moilwa from Botswana, who is HIV positive, during a visit to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. PA Images PA Images

The year 2016 saw 1.8 million new infections, almost half the record number of some 3.5 million in 1997, said the report.

In total, 76.1 million people have been infected with HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – since the epidemic started in the 1980s. Some 35 million have died.

“Communities and families are thriving as AIDS is being pushed back,” said UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.

As we bring the epidemic under control, health outcomes are improving and nations are becoming stronger.

As yet, there is no HIV vaccine or cure, and infected people rely on lifelong anti-retroviral therapy to stop the virus replicating.

HIV prevention drug Truvada The HIV prevention drug Truvada - pictured in a doctor's office in Berlin. Maurizio Gambarini via PA Images Maurizio Gambarini via PA Images

Without treatment, HIV-infected people go on to develop AIDS, a syndrome that weakens the immune system and leaves the body exposed to opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis, and some types of cancer.

Treatment carries side effects and is costly, but allows infected people to be healthier for longer.

‘More work to do’

Most progress has been made in east and southern Africa, the region that was hardest hit by the epidemic and where many interventions were focused.

Since 2010, AIDS-related deaths in the region declined by 42%. The region accounts for half the world’s infected population, with women and girls disproportionately affected at 60%.

Sixty percent of all people who receive anti-retroviral therapy live in east and southern Africa which, along with west and central Europe and the Americas, is on target to meet the so-called 90-90-90 targets set by the UN, said the report.

By 2020, states the plan, 90% of infected people must know their status, of whom 90% must be on treatment. In 90% of those, the virus will be “suppressed” by medicine to the extent that it cannot function or replicate.

By 2016, 70% of infected people knew their status, said the new report. Of those, 77% were on treatment, and 82% had virus suppression.

UNAIDS expressed concern about two regions with worsening AIDS trends: the Middle East-North Africa, and eastern Europe-central Asia. Both are areas marred by conflict and political uncertainty.

New HIV infections rose by 60% in eastern Europe and central Asia, and deaths by almost a third from 2010 to 2016.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the number of AIDS deaths increased by a fifth in the last six years.

“Globally, progress has been significant, but there is still more work to do,” the authors said in a statement.

“Around 30% of people living with HIV still do not know their HIV status, 17.1 million people living with HIV do not have access to anti-retroviral therapy, and more than half of all people living with HIV are not virally suppressed.”

Of the total infected population, over two million were children younger than 15, said UNAIDS. Only 43% of them were on treatment.

New infections among children almost halved from 300,000 in 2010 to 160,000 last year, said the report.

This was partly due to more and more HIV-infected pregnant women – 76% in 2016 – having access to drugs blocking virus transmission to their offspring.

© – AFP, 2017

Read: Gonorrhoea ‘sometimes impossible’ to treat due to antibiotic-resistance – WHO

Read: Calls for prevention medication to be made available following over 500 HIV diagnoses in 2016

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    Mute Dj
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    May 28th 2018, 12:17 AM

    196 representations by Charlie Flanagan alone? Doesn’t sound suspicious at all.

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    Mute Evan Cunningham
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    May 28th 2018, 12:29 AM

    @Dj: He was Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade…

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    Mute iohanx
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    May 28th 2018, 4:05 AM

    @Dj: obviously has the dumbest or laziest constituents whom can’t read an application forms criteria.

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    Mute Frainc Ó Broin
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    May 28th 2018, 8:07 AM

    @iohanx: must be the which minister can you bring section!

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    Mute Brendan Gordon
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    May 28th 2018, 1:54 AM

    They wouldn’t have to if the passport office would actually answer the phone and respond to email. I can understand that they’re understaffed but ignoring queries means more incomplete applications that must be sent back and time wasted.

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    Mute steve white
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    May 28th 2018, 12:16 AM

    We are not looking for any favourtism
    then what else?

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    Mute iohanx
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    May 28th 2018, 4:09 AM

    @steve white: this is a mainly about dumb people whom don’t plan when they want to travel. There are always emergencies, but there will always be dopes looking for assists

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    Mute John Murphy
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    May 28th 2018, 12:54 AM

    They probably work on a first come first serve basis so dealing with politicians requests just slows up the process for everyone else.

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    Mute Mia Morrissey
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    May 28th 2018, 7:24 AM

    I sent my sons passport in at the start of April for a trip in oct . I sent it through passport express. Plenty of time . An unscheduled trip for family to the UK came up . The passport was gone six weeks and no one from the passport office could be contacted via email webchat or phone . I got on via webchat waiting for hours each time and they wouldn’t help , the last time I was told unless someone was dead with evidence my 3 year olds son passport wouldn’t be done .so I asked for help out of pure desperation . I got it with hours to spare . The passport office are v difficult to deal with .

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    Mute Larry Doyle
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    May 28th 2018, 12:38 AM

    Has John Waters got his passport yet?

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    May 28th 2018, 1:08 AM

    @Larry Doyle: I think that gobsh*te had already made plans to move to Spain. Just an attention seeker!

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    Mute Gavin R
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    May 28th 2018, 6:57 AM

    And one was for me, so I could get a valid passport back that I send in to support an application, forgetting I was travelling, the staff were no help at all sent in 10 emails to no reply, calls on hold for upto an hour. Shocking customer support.

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    Mute Sebastian Manka
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    May 28th 2018, 7:01 AM

    Such representations mean pure chronism and should be made explicitly illegal. Naming and shamimg is useful in the meantime though.

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    Mute Pearse Mc Mullen
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    May 28th 2018, 12:40 AM

    The Fine Gael and the Fianna Fáil boyos seem to have gone nuts on them altogether

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    Mute Oisín O'Connor
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    May 28th 2018, 6:02 AM

    Shouldn’t this be shifted to local councillors instead? And isn’t there an actual fast track system where you pay a bit more for the faster turn around?

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    Mute RobbieL
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    May 28th 2018, 6:17 AM

    @Oisín O’Connor:
    I completed my application for a new passport on line and it was a 4 day turn around and i didnt have any need to contact my local TD’s thankfully

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    Mute John Campbell
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    May 28th 2018, 7:05 AM

    @RobbieL: ssshh! You’ll spoil the importance of TDS and Senators. Their public profile will disappear altogether if people look after their own affairs.

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    Mute
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    May 28th 2018, 7:38 AM

    @RobbieL: yeah sure you did

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    Mute Mark Fields
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    May 28th 2018, 3:16 AM

    Why would anyone want a passport to leave Ireland?

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    Mute Shane
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    May 28th 2018, 2:07 PM

    Funny how the 3,500 recently new “Irish Citizens” had no problem getting their passports, all had them to hand on the day to parade in front of the camera’s.

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    Mute Tomás Ó Conaola
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    May 28th 2018, 8:23 AM

    We need another two or three physical passport offices , in Galway & Sligo as examples. Also, automated renewals with pre scanned photos, renewal reminder notices automatically sent out by email, and arguably 15 year passports also ( I’ve not aged in 15 years at any rate…). Or add it to the functions of local government, arguably, despite their flaws.

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    Mute Sean Conway
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    May 28th 2018, 7:04 AM

    The only reason FF/FG did so well in workingclass areas was promising medical cards for them. something they were entitled already.

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    Mute Tom Molloy
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    May 28th 2018, 7:28 AM

    Helping nobody has now been turned into a virtue by our new spiritual guides, media busybodies ?

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    Mute Niall Ó Cofaigh
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    May 28th 2018, 10:04 AM

    that is how they get the votes that re-elect them….. it is a micro version of “stroke” politics whether it be passports or getting a pedestrian crossing or a street light or 1001 other things it is a “game” played to make it appear that your friendly TD has done you a favour….

    There is a place for TDs and other elected officials to follow through on issues that affect constituents but there has to be a balance… and in this case maybe the people waiting for passports did have issues that needed speeding up over the longer waiting lists… who knows for sure

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    Mute Henry Baggins
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    May 28th 2018, 12:24 AM

    That’s all they are good for.

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