The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus has created additional setbacks for the global AIDS response and there could be an estimated 123,000-293,000 additional new HIV infections and 69,000-148,000 additional AIDS-related deaths between 2020 and 2022 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic's long term impact, according to new reports.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said in its new report 'Prevailing against pandemics by putting people at the centre' that as COVID-19 pushes the AIDS response even further off track and the 2020 targets are missed, countries must learn from the lessons of underinvesting in health and to step up global action to end AIDS and other pandemics.

The UNAIDS is calling on countries to make far greater investments in global pandemic responses and adopt a new set of bold, ambitious but achievable HIV targets. If those targets are met, the world will be back on track to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

"The global AIDS response was off track before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but the rapid spread of the coronavirus has created additional setbacks. Modelling of the pandemic’s long-term impact on the HIV response shows that there could be an estimated 123,000 to 293,000 additional new HIV infections and 69,000 to 148,000 additional AIDS-related deaths between 2020 and 2022," the report said.

Executive Director of UNAIDS Winnie Byanyima lamented that the collective failure to invest sufficiently in comprehensive, rights-based, people-centred HIV responses has come at a terrible price.
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