Urgent need to sustain progress made in combating HIV/AIDS, says AIDS Society of India

World AIDS Day is marked globally on December 1, and the theme for 2024, is ‘Take the rights path: My health, my right.’ The AIDS Society of India, in a press release, highlights the fact that while India has done very well in terms of saving lives and reducing new HIV infections along with AIDS-related deaths as well as contributing to the global effort by making generic anti-retroviral therapy affordable and accessible to over 92% of people living with HIV in the world, there still remain goals to be achieved. As of 2023, 39.9 million people globally were living with HIV, with 9.2 million lacking access to antiretroviral treatment, the release said. Funding shortages, policy and regulatory hurdles, capacity constraints, and crackdowns on civil society and on the human rights of marginalised communities, are obstructing the progress of HIV prevention and treatment services, the AIDS Society of India warns. “We know how to prevent HIV, diagnose HIV, treat, care, support PLHIV and let us use them to end AIDS,” says N. Kumarasamy, Secretary General, AIDS Society of India and Director-VHS Infectious Diseases Medical Centre at Voluntary Health Services, Chennai, according to the release.