World AIDS Day: low numbers and high ambitions

One of the things we can be proud of our countries, Brazil and UK, is the quantity and quality of data available regarding HIV/AIDS. In both cases, there are timely statistics and impressive analysis. This is a very good thing – good and reliable data have led us to well targeted and effective policy.

I am Brazilian and a bit more familiar with my country’s government led AIDS programme: free, anonymous and quick diagnoses, free medication and treatment in the public hospitals and specialised doctors – all that added to some good campaigning both encouraging prevention, protection and fighting discrimination. Researching UK policy on AIDS, I was impressed: in August this year, government gave a press release containing a series of measures regarding modernising HIV rules for healthcare providers to protect the public. It is calculated that one quarter of the people living with HIV in the UK are undiagnosed, and access to early self-testing and early treatment could improve their lives and help prevent further infections, all the while lifting a lot of restrictions that existed around doctors and nurses living with HIV.

In both countries, mortality rates are exemplary. In 2011, less than 1% of the people diagnosed with HIV in the UK died. In Brazil, according to the Ministry of Health, the mortality rate in 2011 for the population living with HIV was 6.3 per hundred thousand. These impressive low numbers have given us the opportunity to share expertise with other countries and join forces to fight HIV/AIDS. UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) has a really cool programme in Uganda to develop a gender aware approach to HIV prevention, which targets young women. Brazil, that produces locally 11 of the 20 medications which compose the ARV treatment, has a strong cooperation agenda with South America and Portuguese-speaking Africa – between 2003 and 2011, the country donated over 30 thousand treatments.

Now the question everyone (and at this time, of course Bono’s face comes to mind) is asking: how and when will we be able to achieve the first AIDS-free generation? Well, some say we are getting pretty close. Some in the UN advise an optimistic caution, pointing to recent rise in infections amongst young people. Personally, I believe we are on track but there is no room for relaxing just yet. We must keep up our game and make sure good diagnoses and treatment are available for everyone and that people currently living with HIV are able to enjoy long and healthy lives.