UNAIDS Report: Eight Million Lives Saved Globally Since Year 2000

NBC News reports:

The world has made "extraordinary progress" against AIDS, slashing the rate of new infections by more than a third and saving nearly 8 million lives since 2000, a new report finds. Fifteen years of work to make sure more people get drugs that can keep them healthy and keep them from infecting others has had spectacular effects on the pandemic that has killed nearly 40 million people, the United Nations AIDS agency UNAIDS says in its report. Distribution of condoms has averted around 50 million new HIV infections since the HIV pandemic started in the 1980s, and other programs to educate people about how HIV spreads and to encourage safe sex have helped, also. "The world has delivered on halting and reversing the AIDS epidemic," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

But temper your celebrations because more than a million are still dying every year. (Tipped by JMG reader David)

World Health Organization Clarifies Its Position On Gay Men Using PrEP

Via Buzzfeed:

The World Health Organization announced Friday that for the first time, it “strongly recommends” that men who have sex with men should consider antiretroviral drugs along with the use of condoms as an additional method of preventing HIV infection. The health agency said that new prevention options such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — currently in the form of a daily pill containing two drugs — are needed alongside condom use to reduce HIV infection rates among men who have sex with men, a key population in which infection rates remain high. The agency clarified the recommendation Monday, however, stating that it was not recommending that all men who have sex with men must or should begin PrEP treatment as incorrectly reported by some media outlets. “The recommendation states that PrEP should be considered as an additional choice for preventing HIV infection alongside and together with the use of condoms and other prevention options,” WHO said in a statement to BuzzFeed explaining the recommendation. “Essentially, this is about choice — in the same way that WHO recommends different contraception options for women WHO wants to support offering gay men the full range of prevention options to suit their circumstances and not exclude any options that are evidenced based.”

Read the full update.

World Health Organization: ALL Gay Men Should Be On Anti-Retroviral Drugs

A stunning declaration from the World Health Organization:

The World Health Organization has suggested for the first time that all men who have sex with men should take antiretroviral medicine, warning that HIV infection rates among gay men are exploding around the world. In guidelines published Friday, it said that it “strongly recommends men who have sex with men consider taking antiretroviral medicines as an additional method of preventing HIV infection.” Similar guidelines were issued by the U.S. in May.

In May, the CDC expanded its own recommendations, saying that anybody at risk for HIV, not just gay men, should be taking Truvada.