Limited Access To Health Services Due To COVID, HIV-AIDS Deaths In West-Central Africa Rise

JAKARTA - The Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) stated that COVID-19 could trigger an increase in HIV infections and deaths within a few years due to disruptions to health services due to the pandemic.

About 200,000 people in West and Central Africa were infected with HIV last year out of a total of 1.5 million global cases, according to AIDS data.

New infections in the region are growing rapidly among vulnerable groups that include young girls and women, homosexual men, sex workers, drug users and prisoners, who do not always have access to prevention and treatment measures.

UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima told Reuters via Antara that she still did not know the extent of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on HIV.

"We are quite worried that when all the data comes in for this year (2021), we may see a spike in new infections, and over the next few years we may record more deaths," Byanyima said on the sidelines of a health meeting on Tuesday, October 2.

"We are seeing across the country a decrease in people receiving access to prevention, a decrease in people getting tested, and an increase in the number of people dropping out of treatment. This is not a good sign, but we don't know yet what the impact will be on new infections and deaths," he added.

Health systems in West and Central Africa have been weakened by the COVID-19 outbreak. These conditions forced the government to divert scarce resources to tackle the pandemic.

Meanwhile measures to stop the spread of the virus such as lockdowns have limited access to HIV prevention and treatment.

Although rates of HIV infection and AIDS-related deaths have declined steadily over the past decade, West and Central Africa accounted for 22 percent of AIDS-related deaths in 2020.

UNAIDS warned in July last year that the global fight against AIDS was faltering even before the COVID-19 pandemic. And the pandemic threatens to hit hard-won progress against HIV for 10 years or more.

Byanyima urged other leaders to emulate Senegalese President Macky Sall who increased funding at the health ministry to fight HIV.