Nearly 40 million living with HIV last year
UN says lack of treatment means someone died due to HIV every minute in 2023 EDITH M. LEDERER | Associated Press UNITED NATIONS — Nearly 40 million people were living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, last year, and more than 9 million weren’t getting any treatment.
As a result, someone died of AIDS-related causes every minute, the U.N. said in a new report launched July 22. 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 by UNAIDS, the U.N.
agency leading the global effort to end the pandemic. Gender inequality is exacerbating the risks for girls and women, the report said, citing the extraordinarily high incidence of HIV among adolescents and young women in parts of Africa.
