We also have effective drugs 💊 to control HIV and interrupt transmission.
And we have COVID-19 vaccines 💉, which are proven to be safe and effective for persons living with HIV. Now we must ensure consistent and equitable access to these powerful tools.
While our region 🌎 is falling behind on 2030 targets to reduce new HIV infections and eliminate AIDS-related deaths, we’ve made significant progress.
They piloted innovative methods to get medicines 💊 to those who need it, such as dispensing multi-month supplies, loans between countries, and activating special procurement procedures.
But countries in the Region 🌎, including ministries of health, civil society organizations, and international cooperation agencies, worked together to maintain the supply of antiretroviral drugs for people living with HIV, and for HIV prevention.
Even before the pandemic, just 65% of people living with HIV in our region were receiving ARV therapy 💊
And unfortunately, as the pandemic has progressed, more countries reported partial disruptions in services for ARV therapy.
With proper antiretroviral – or ARV – treatment, people living with HIV can keep their disease in check and avoid infecting others—but this requires consistent access to these drugs 💊
Across Latin America and the Caribbean 🌎, 2.4 million people are living with HIV, and just 81% of them know their HIV status.
Today, as we commemorate #WorldAIDSDay, PAHO honors those who lost their lives to this disease and those who over the years have fought for new tools to protect those living with HIV.
COVID is not the first infectious disease 🦠 that has shaken the world.
For more than 40 years, scientists, countries and communities have been grappling with the HIV epidemic.
That’s why it is crucial that we expand vaccinations to all.
So far, only 54% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean 🌎 have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, so our region remains especially vulnerable.
