Join us in celebrating World AIDS Day
Join us in celebrating World AIDS Day
Globally, 33.3 million people have HIV and HIV/AIDs remains the leading cause of death among adults in Sub-Saharan Africa
To date, more than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007 have died from the virus. In the lead up to the UN High Level Meeting (HLM) on NCDs, the NCD community turned to the HIV/AIDS community for guidance on how to best approach an HLM on health given their success on HIV/AIDS in 2001. Going forward, we may very well turn once more to the HIV/AIDS community for guidance, this time on implementation and integration of services. The success of modern medicine has made HIV/AIDS, itself, a chronic condition that requires ongoing care, much the same as NCDs. Low and middle income countries (LMICs) have both “rapidly rising NCD incidence and higher age-adjusted NCD death rates than high-income countries.” Almost half of the disease burden in LMICs is from NCDs when morbidity and mortality are taken into account. Countries plagued by HIV/AIDS will in fact face a double burden, as the incidence continues to rise. Since NCDs also require continuous care, many lessons can be drawn from the scale-up of HIV services in low-income countries for institutionalizing care for NCDs and there are examples of successful collaborations to strengthen health systems. Individuals with HIV are also at a higher risk for developing CVD, furthering the possible linkages between the different systems of care. As noted by Dr Srinath Reddy and Dr Sania Nishtar, discussions on aid effectiveness will be critical for policy makers facing increased budget cuts and looking for innovative solutions on international health and development expenditure. For more information on the links between CVD and HIV/AIDS:
Read our HeartBeat Article "Bridging the Gap- NCDs and HIV/AIDS" >
Read the article co-authored by Dr Sania Nishtar and Miriam Rabkin of Columbia University on the potential of scaling up HIV services >
Read the recent blog on HIV/AIDS and NCDs at Dialogue4Health >
Read more about Aid Effectiveness >
Read more about World AIDS Day >