HIV is spreading to 2.5 million more people every year through new infections, but the rates have "stayed relatively constant" over the past decade, according to a new worldwide study.
According to Voice of America, the annual rate of HIV infections is down from the peak 3.3 million in 1997, and the yearly deaths from HIV/AIDS have dropped from a high of 1.8 million per year to 1.2 million, according to the new Global Burden of Disease 2015 study.
"Although scale-up of antiretroviral therapy and measures to prevent mother-to-child transmission have had a huge impact on saving lives, our new findings present a worrying picture of slow progress in reducing new HIV infections over the past 10 years," said Haidong Wang, the lead author of the study.
The new study is based on findings coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which includes more than 1,700 collaborators in 124 countries,
according to a statement from the institute.
Researchers did find the increases in age-standardized rates of new infections between 2005 and 2015 in 74 countries, including Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya, the Philippines, Cambodia, Mexico, and Russia, something that threatens to undermine past progress in combating infections.
"If this trend of stubbornly high new infections continues, there will be significant challenges in meeting the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal for the world to witness the end of AIDS in less than 15 years," the institute's director, Dr. Christopher Murray, said in a statement.
"Everyone in population health – researchers, policymakers, practitioners, pharmaceutical companies, advocates, and others – needs to understand that even if more people are living with HIV, we cannot end AIDS without stopping new infections," Murray added.
The study was
published this week in the journal The Lancet HIV and was presented at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation statement.
"The Global Burden of Disease HIV study provides critical health information to help shape and support national and global decision-making," said Peter Hayward, editor of The Lancet HIV. "The estimates are also key to strengthening accountability to ensure that promises made by politicians and policymakers with regard to specific HIV targets are being delivered."