Unit 4 Macro: Development Goals - Combatting HIV and Malaria

Goal 6 of the Millennium Development Goals focuses on combatting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. One of the targets is to have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

HIV / AIDS

At the end of 2010, 6.5 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy for HIV or AIDS in developing regions. The incidence of new HIV infections per year per 100 people aged 15-49 in 2010 was highest in Sub-Saharan Africa (0.41) and Southern Africa (1.08). For developing regions the incidence of HIV has fallen from 0.09 in 2001 to 0.07in 2010.

Limited progress has been made in reducing new HIV infections, but there is better news on increasing life expectancy because of the wider availability and lower cost of using life-saving antiretroviral therapy. Young people aged between 15-24 years account for 40% of all new adult HIV infections. Infection rates in young women 15–24 years old are twice as high as among men of the same age

Malaria

An estimated 655,000 malaria deaths occurred in 2010, of which 91 per cent were in Africa and 86 per cent were children under 5 years of age. Major progress has been made in cutting malaria partly due to increased international funding and the wider adoption of insecticide-treated ben nets. There are worries however that resistance levels to some malaria drugs may be weakening.