UN, world leaders adopt declaration to fight AIDS

World Today

UN, world leaders adopt declaration to fight AIDS

Huge strides made in the battle against HIV/AIDS have given a boost to the fight as world leaders pledged to end the epidemic in the next 14 years.

The political declaration at the U.N. AIDS Summit came alongside significant gains in providing life-saving medication to patients, reducing new infections among children, and a dip in AIDS-related deaths.

CCTV America’s Liling Tan reported on details. Follow Liling Tan on Twitter @LilingTan

“Ending the AIDS epidemic would be one of the greatest achievements of our lifetimes. It can be done and it must be done,” Mogens Lykketoft, President of the U.N. General Assembly, said.

U.N. member nations agreed to speed up plans to cut the number of new HIV infections from slightly more than 2 million now to fewer than 500000, half the number of AIDS-related deaths to fewer than 500,000 and eliminate the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS by 2020.

Gains are already being made in prevention and treatment: 17 million people now have access to life-saving antiretroviral drugs.

The rate of new HIV transmissions has been a problem. The UNAIDS estimates that the decline in new infections has remained nearly static in the past few years. While new HIV infections in Eastern Europe and central Asia have spiked 57 percent.