December is the World AIDS Day. Today, almost half of the 36 million people living with HIV in the world are on antiretroviral treatment. The figures are in the report named Get On The Fast Track: the life-cycle approach to HIV launched on November 21st by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The document reveals that in June 2016 around 18.2 million people had access to treatment, twice the number recorded five years ago.

According to the report, the treatment also has a direct impact on increasing the life expectancy of people living with HIV. In 2015, there were more people over 50 years old living with HIV than ever: 5.8 million. The document also points out that if the treatment goals are reached, it is expected that this number will increase to 8.5 million by 2020.

However, it also presents issues that need attention. One of them is the large number of people at higher risk of HIV infection and people living in areas with high incidence that are getting no access to HIV services at critical times of their lives, opening the door to new HIV infections and increasing the risk of death from AIDS-related illnesses.

Access the report of UNAIDS.

International collaboration in the fight against AIDS

The Brazilian Ministry of Health and Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) are working on the development and subsequent availability of a drug that will reduce significantly the spread of the HIV virus. PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is being developed in partnership with two other Latin American countries, Mexico and Peru. The goal of the World Health Organization (WHO), represented by UNITAID, the sponsor of the project, is to multiply the results obtained here for everyone.

Fiotec supports the study that is led by researchers from Fiocruz, Beatriz Grinsztejn and Valdiléa Veloso, references in research related to AIDS. The drug will have the same effect as a birth control pill. The person taking it daily will develop a kind of "immune barrier" against HIV. This way, the person will be protected to have sex with people possibly contaminated. However, as with the birth control pill, anyone taking the drug should not give up the use of condoms. Today, studies are at an early stage, but the expectation is that the drug will be available to the population of the three countries involved in three years.

Meet other Fiocruz researches aimed at fighting AIDS.

* With information from the web portal of UNAIDS Brasil.