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According to UNAIDS statistics, almost seven thousand people contract HIV every day, which is the equivalent of four people becoming newly infected every minute. The Red Cross reports that aid agencies, the UN and governments must work harder and faster to prevent millions more lives being lost.
Since 1981, more than 25 million people have died of AIDS, and some 33 million are currently living with HIV. The figures show the global response to HIV and AIDS has failed to keep pace with the spread of infection, despite the UN’s Millennium Development Goal to halt and begin reversing the trend by 2015.
Devastated communities
HIV is a complex disaster and the World Disasters Report identifies the need for longer-term planning and better-targeted solutions. Currently, communities are being decimated and tens of thousands of children orphaned.
In regions with high HIV prevalence such as Southern Africa, the impact on education, health, childcare and economic development is devastating: in South Africa, one in five young teachers is living with HIV; Botswana has lost 17 percent of health workers to the virus, and UNAIDS projects a 20 percent loss of the agricultural workforce across countries including Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe by 2020.
In the UK, the number of people living with HIV increased by 15 percent to 73,000 between 2005 and 2006. The International Monetary Fund has warned that some nations risk a downward spiral into subsistence economies in three or four generations.
Dealing with stigma
Matthias Schmale, director of British Red Cross International Division, said: "A concerted effort to tackle stigma and discrimination that HIV positive people are subjected to continues to be essential.
"In our own Ipsos MORI poll, the British Red Cross discovered that one in seven young people in the UK would not be willing to remain friends with someone who was HIV positive, and the figure for South Africa was one in five.
"We must invest in long-term programmes that support HIV positive people and educate their communities. This will in turn encourage more people to come forward for testing, and help build community resilience."
The report also calls for a higher priority for HIV in disaster management programmes. Disruption of medical supplies can be life threatening, and lack of clean water can be especially dangerous to those with advanced HIV. Any situation that results in an increase in malnutrition, such as the current food security crisis, will speed up the progression of HIV and makes sufferers more prone to other diseases.
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