A life lost every minute: grim UN report reveals global HIV/Aids mortality rate
- A new report lays bare the scale of the HIV/Aids pandemic, showing 630,000 worldwide deaths last year – more than double the 2025 target
While advances are being made to end the global Aids pandemic, the report said progress has slowed, funding is shrinking, and new infections are rising in three regions: the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America.
In 2023, around 630,000 people died from Aids-related illnesses, a significant decline from the 2.1 million deaths in 2004. But the latest figure is more than double the target for 2025 of fewer than 250,000 deaths, according to the report released on Monday by UNAIDS, the UN agency leading the global effort to end the pandemic.
The proportion of new infections globally among marginalised communities that face stigma and discrimination – sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs also increased to 55 per cent last year from 45 per cent in 2010, it said.
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “World leaders pledged to end the Aids pandemic as a public health threat by 2030, and they can uphold their promise, but only if they ensure that the HIV response has the resources it needs, and that the human rights of everyone are protected.”