UN report: Malaysia among top 10 Asian nations affected by HIV

NEW YORK: Malaysia is one of the 10 countries which together accounted for over 95% of all new HIV infections in the Asia-Pacific region in 2016, said the United Nations in a recently-released report.

The “Ending AIDS: Progress Towards the 90-90 Targets” report said that the other nine countries in Asia were India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Thailand.

It also contained an extensive analysis of the targets set for 2020 when 90% of all HIV-infected people should know their status, 90% of all HIV-diagnosed people should be able to access anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and 90% of those taking ART have virally suppressed HIV.  

The report produced by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS said that there was an annual 13% decline in new infections, from some 310,000 in 2010 to 270,000 in 2016.

It added that some 19.5 million of the world's 36.7 million HIV-infected people had access to treatment, and said that the target is to put 30 million people worldwide on treatment by 2020. - Bernama