A doctor seeing a patient in a clinic in Mukono, central Uganda. A UNAIDS report indicates that successes in treating people with HIV have led to life expectancy in Africa rising from 56 to 61 years since 2010. Photo Credit: Arne Hoel / World Bank (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
HealthSociety Sub-Saharan AfricaFighting HIV Helps Us Live Longer
A newly published report from the United Nations shows that thanks to the fight against HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancy went from 56 years old in 2010 to 61 years old in 2023.
“Between 2010 and 2023, East and Southern Africa saw a 59% reduction and West and Central Africa a 46% reduction in the annual number of people with HIV,” explains Anne-Claire Guichard, senior policy advisor at UNAIDS and one of the a global UN report’s authors.
In 2023, some 31 million people were on antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment, thus reducing the death toll to 630,000. It is the lowest level since 2004, peaking at around two million. The introduction of integrated treatment of tuberculosis and HIV prevented around 6.4 million deaths worldwide between 2010 and 2022. Nine countries – including seven in Africa – have met the UN’s 95-95-95 treatment goals: diagnosing 95% of all HIV-positive cases, providing ART for 95% of those diagnosed, and achieving viral suppression for 95% of those treated. Botswana, Denmark, Eswatini, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have all achieved this. Of all people living with HIV in 2023, 86% knew their status, 77% had access to treatment, and 72% had an undetectable viral load.
