NPR: Why Can’t We Bring Down The Number Of New HIV Cases?
“…The number of people getting infected with HIV each year peaked in 1997 at about 3.5 million. Prevention efforts … have slashed that figure dramatically. But progress stalled around 2010. Since then the world has tallied about two million new cases a year with no end in sight. … [A] new report from [the Kaiser Family Foundation] and UNAIDS shows that global funding to combat HIV declined in 2015 to $7.5 billion from $8.6 billion in 2014. ‘I think we are at an odd point,’ [Jennifer Kates, vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said]. ‘HIV is still a part of the global dialogue but not at the same intensity that it used to be. And that’s a challenge because this epidemic isn’t over’…” (Beaubien, 12/1).