Just like in 2020, there were 1.5 million new HIV infections in 2021. This means that the target has not been achieved, according to UNAIDS, which actually aimed for a million fewer HIV infections this year. Since 1996, the number of new HIV infections has fallen by 54 percent. About 650,000 people will die from AIDS in 2021. In 2004, most people died from the disease, with about 2 million deaths.
Stigmatization
In Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and some countries of Latin America, HIV infections continue to increase. In Western Europe and West and Central Africa, the number of new infections with HIV is decreasing. Moreover, the situation has improved a lot in recent years in East and Southern Africa, where most people still live with HIV, according to the Netherlands Aids Fund. However, it is now noticeable that the decline is continuing at a slower pace, according to the UN programme.
Gay men, trans people, sex workers, drug users and their sexual partners are most at risk of becoming infected with HIV. Those groups are stigmatized and discriminated against in many countries, making it difficult for them to access medicines and preventive measures, says the Dutch Aidsfonds in response to UNAIDS figures. Girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa are also at twice the risk of HIV infection than boys of the same age, it says.