TEHRAN – The world can end AIDS with communities leading the way that is why the theme for World AIDS Day this year is ‘Let communities lead’.

Every year, on December 1, the world commemorates World AIDS Day. People around the world unite to show support for people living with and affected by HIV and to remember those who lost their lives to AIDS.

World AIDS Day is more than a celebration of the achievements of communities; it is a call to action to enable and support communities in their leadership roles.

Organizations of communities living with, at risk of, or affected by HIV are the frontline of progress in the HIV response. Communities connect people with person-centered public health services, build trust, innovate, monitor the implementation of policies and services, and hold providers accountable.

In this regard, Iran has made comprehensive efforts to end this epidemic. What has been done so far to end the AIDS epidemic, has not deviated or retreated even due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

But communities are being held back in their leadership. Funding shortages, policy and regulatory hurdles, capacity constraints, and crackdowns on civil society and on the human rights of marginalized communities, are obstructing the progress of HIV prevention and treatment services.

If these obstacles are removed, community-led organizations can add even greater impetus to the global HIV response, advancing progress toward the end of AIDS.

The global HIV/AIDS epidemic, through its devastating scale and impact, constitutes a global emergency and one of the most formidable challenges to human life. It weakens social and economic growth worldwide affecting national, social, family, and individual levels of the society.

Millions of people have died of Aids and millions become infected with the HIV virus yearly.

According to the United Nations, in 2021, 38.4 million people in the world were living with the HIV virus.

Also, 1.5 million people came down with the virus, and some 650,000 people, including 110,000 children and teenagers, died of AIDS-related illnesses.

Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, 84.2 million people have been infected with the virus and 40.1 million people have died of AIDS-related causes.

According to the report of the Ministry of Health, some 23,902 persons have so far become HIV positive, 18,326 of them have received healthcare services and some 17,377 people are under treatment.

Although 81 percent of people living with HIV are men and 19 percent are women, the pattern of transmission and the percentage of men and women have changed in recent years.

Out of all the identified and reported cases in the first quarter of the current Iranian year (started March 21), 26 percent of registered cases are women and 74 percent of them are men.

According to this report, 55 percent of all identified cases at the time of diagnosis were in the age group of 25 to 39, and 75 percent were in the age group of 20 to 45; the age transition pattern has not changed in recent years.

It is estimated that 46,145 people in the country are suffering from AIDS. The main causes of the disease regarding all the registered cases in the country since 1365 (March 1986-March 1987) are, respectively, drug injection (56 percent), sexual contact transmission (26 percent), and transmission from mother to child (1.7 percent).

The route of transmission in 16.3 percent of patients remains unclear and 0.2 percent of the cases were related to blood and blood products in the years before the implementation of the policy of 100 percent purification of healthy blood by the Blood Transfusion Organization.

In the year 1401 (ended March 20), drug injection accounted for 16 percent of infections, while sexual relations accounted for 57 percent, and mother-to-child transmission accounted for 1 percent.

In 26 percent of cases, the possible way of infection was explained. However, there were no new cases of infection through blood and blood products.

According to the Health Ministry, access to all prevention and treatment services, including diagnostic tests, medicine, prevention services, harm reduction services, mental health care, and specialized diagnostic laboratories are available to these patients.