New AIDS treatment number in Africa gives cause for optimism

Guest post by Erin Hohlfelder, ONE's global health policy manager

Progress in global development can often feel incremental; we celebrate a new road built or a new infection averted because effective, sustainable development is a long-term game filled with as many challenges as successes. But occasionally a statistic comes along that reminds us that in some cases, things are (to borrow a phrase from Charles Kenny) “getting better,” and fast. Today, to coincide with the 19th African Union Summit next week, UNAIDS released new preliminary data showing that there are now more than 6.2 million people on antiretroviral treatment across sub-Saharan Africa, up from 5 million in 2010. That number sounds even more beautiful in its rightful context: it’s a more than 100-fold increase in access to treatment for AIDS since 2002, when just 50,000 HIV-positive people in sub-Saharan Africa were on treatment.

This statistic is truly a global achievement. Progress achieved this rapidly is due to a unique coalition of actors and programs that have worked in tandem over the last decade to ramp up treatment, driven by the shared belief that anyone who is in need of AIDS treatment should be able to access it, wherever they live. Donor support for mechanisms like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria and the US President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, which both got their starts roughly a decade ago, have been key to the scale up across Africa. Many African governments also deserve much credit for enacting national AIDS programs, devoting increased political attention to the fight, and committing their own resources to treatment and prevention programs in the last decade. UNAIDS notes that South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya led the way over the last year in driving up treatment enrollment, while many other countries including Botswana, Namibia, and Swaziland have already shown leadership by achieving high coverage levels.

As we approach the International AIDS Conference in just two weeks, we are constantly reminded that there is much work left to do in the fight against AIDS—still millions in need of treatment, and millions more who need access to effective prevention and care services. But as we set our sights toward a larger vision of “the beginning of the end of AIDS,” today’s news gives us cause for optimism. Progress is not just possible—it’s happening, and it must be sustained.