World AIDS Day- 40th Anniversary.
In 2023, AIDS claimed 630,000 lives worldwide and 1.3 million people were newly infected. Almost half of these new infections were among young women and girls. Globally, there are 39 million people living with HIV.
When I started treating HIV in 1990, all of my patients died within a few years with the exception of a few. There were no treatments. The HIV treating physicians in the province of Ontario at the time became experts in the palliative care management of the patient dying of AIDS. I loved them all. My heart aches to this day when I think of each one of them. I was in my 20s and so were they. Today, they might be grandparents or happy retirees still living with their partners and loving their friends and families.
In 2006, that all changed with the advent of new life-saving treatments which involved a handful of pills taken three times a day. The treatment was toxic and caused so many side effects but people lived. Fast forward 19 years later and my patients are now treated with either one pill once a day or injections given every two months with few side effects. We are growing old together and I love them all. They have careers and partners and families and lives. It has been an honour treating this disease for 35 years, watching how the world responded and how my patients lived on as a result. We are so close to a cure; to the end of AIDS.
Today, 9 million people in resource poor countries do not have access to this life-saving treatment. Every week, 4,000 adolescent girls and young women are newly infected with HIV.
But there is so much hope. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS) set the 95-95-95 declaration that called on all member states to ensure that 95% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 95% of people who know their status are receiving HIV treatment, and 95% of people on treatment are virally suppressed - the goal of treatment. People who are virally suppressed cannot transmit and can live normal, healthy lives.
Today, Botswana, Eswatini, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe have reached these targets. A further 16 other countries, eight of them in sub-Saharan Africa, the region which accounts for 65% of all people living with HIV, are also close to doing so.
This is the path that will end AIDS. This path will also help prepare for and tackle future pandemics and advance progress towards achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals.
If you are not aware of these goals, check them out: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
I love these goals. They are the reason I am on a political path. We can achieve them all if leaders lead and we all take action.
For those I loved who passed away and to those I love who have a future, I mark with respect and humility, this 40th World AIDS Day.
Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik
MD CCFP O. Ont. MSM
Founder of ARCH Clinic Guelph and Waterloo
( now called HIVe Clinic)
Founder of Bracelet of Hope
Donate at https://www.braceletofhope.ca/ways-to-give/ as we strive to end AIDS and reach these goals in Lesotho, Africa.
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