According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an estimated 1.2 million people aged 13 and over are living with HIV infection in the United States.
Blacks, who are 13 percent of the population, continue to account for the most infections – with 17,670 diagnoses in 2015 alone; whereas whites, who are 72 percent, accounted for 10,509, and latinos, who are 16 percent, 9,290.
Meanwhile, according to UNAIDS, there were 36.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide in 2015. Unsurprisingly:
The vast majority of people living with HIV are in low-to-middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. 1.8 million children worldwide are living with HIV. Most of these children were infected by their HIV-positive mothers during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding.
But, if there is a silver lining in all of the distressing statistics related to this pandemic, it’s that AIDS-related deaths worldwide are decreasing – from a peak of 2.2 million in the mid-2000s down to 1.1 million in 2015. Significantly, the BBC reported on World Aids Day in 2014 that preliminary results of studies conducted in South Africa showed that, after decades of attacking the human immune system, the HIV virus has become much less infectious, making it far more difficult to transmit than was the case 20 years ago.
All the same, it’s important to appreciate that greater access to testing and treatment explains why it appears the number of people living with HIV is increasing. Even so, it speaks volumes that:
Only 60 percent of people living with HIV know their status.
(aids.gov)
Meanwhile, as crooked as President-elect Trump alleges the Clinton Foundation is, President Bill Clinton deserves special commendation for establishing the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in 2002.
[It is] a global health organization committed to strengthening integrated health systems in the developing world and expanding access to care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis…
Since its inception, CHAI has helped more than 2 million people access the medicines needed for treatment, which represents nearly half of all the people living with HIV and on treatment in developing countries.
(Clinton Foundation)
This – coupled with his Clinton Global Initiative, which he founded in 2005 to raise private funds to help alleviate poverty, create a cleaner environment, and increase access to health care and education – has Clinton now giving Jimmy Carter a run for the title of best former president in U.S. history.
Having said that, I would be remiss not to commend former President George W. Bush for creating the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2003. According to the Kaiser Foundation, it has provided $48 billion in funding thus far, making it the largest effort in history by a single nation to combat a single disease.
Actually, I was so impressed with PEPFAR, as well as Bush’s unprecedented initiatives to promote development in Africa, that I wrote “President Bush Has Done More for Africa than Any Other President,” June 20, 2005.
On the other hand, I am constrained to note that, despite promising to increase funding for PEPFAR by $1 billion annually, President Barack Obama has failed to do so.
AIDS activists expressed bitter disappointment over President Obama’s proposal to cut $200 million from the global AIDS budget for FY 2016. The President’s budget fails to restore cuts made since 2011 in PEPFAR, and reduces by nearly $250 million the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This reduction to global AIDS programs from FY15 (enacted) amplifies years of underfinancing, leaving PEPFAR short of funds needed to carry out its mission.
(Health GAP (Global Access Project), February 2, 2015)
To be fair, these cuts probably had more to do with prevailing budget constraints and congressional Republicans, who control the government’s purse, than anything else. After all, even if the money were available to increase funding, Republicans, who applauded Bush, might’ve accused Obama of using American taxpayers’ money to further some pan-African liberation agenda. (Absurd, I know; but they have routinely accused him of things that are even more absurd.)
Finally, Erving “Magic” Johnson deserves honorable mention for doing more than anybody to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS and demonstrate how truly fulfilling life can still be for a person living with this deadly virus. This year marks his 25th living and thriving with HIV.
Keep hope alive….
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Bush has done more for Africa…
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, December 1, at 4:08 p.m.