World on Track to Reach 90-90-90 Goal by 2020

What many thought was a pipe dream might actually become reality. The 90-90-90 targets endorsed by governments in 2014 calling for 90 percent of people to know their status, 90 percent of poz to be on treatment, and 90 percent of poz people to reach undetectable is well on track. 

According to an announcement made by UNAIDS at the 9th International AIDS Conference on HIV Science in Paris over the weekend, we’re closer than ever before. However, there are still places in the world that risk lagging behind thanks to the lack of political progress and commitment to the cause. 

A report released by UNAIDS called Ending AIDS: Progress Towards the 90-90-90 Targets showed that in 2016, 70 percent of people living with HIV new their status. Of that number, 77 percent were on treatment; and 82 percent of those on treatment were virally suppressed. 

Denmark, Iceland, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Cambodia and Botswana have already reached the 90-90-90 goals, and other lower to middle-income countries are nearly there as well, reports AIDS Map. 

In Eastern and Southern Africa, for example, 75 percent of people living with HIV knew their status, 79 percent of poz people have access to treatment, and 83 percent of those people on treatment are undetectable. In other words, “50 percent of all people living with HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa” are virally suppressed. 

The sooner we reach this goal, the less amount of AIDS-related deaths we will see across the world. According to the report, since 2004, Eastern and Southern Africa saw a 62 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths. In the Caribbean, the decline was 52 percent; and in the Asia-Pacific region the decline was 38 percent. 

However, in the Middle East and North Africa, the death rate increased 48 percent; it also increased 38 percent in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 

In Western and Central Europe and North America, the report concluded that 85 percent of people living with HIV know their status, 89 percent of poz people who know their status are on treatment, and 84 percent of those on treatment are virally suppressed. 

But let's not forget, although we are closer than ever before in reaching these goals, we must remember the disproportionate amount of people who lack access to care and meds in United States, especially in the south.

If this particular administration follows through with cutting funding on programs supplying antiretroviral drugs to nearly 11.5 million people worldwide who can’t afford them, researchers say at least one million people will die.