In most countries health spending increases at the same rate as the overall economy grows. In an economist’s world, where necessity has an elasticity of 0 and luxury an elasticity of 1, health care has an income elasticity of close to 1. So how can your gut reaction be made to mirror reality? OUTLOOK looks at the possibilities.

Young people are leading the prevention revolution by taking definitive action to protect themselves from HIV. A change is happening among young people across the world, especially in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Waiting longer to become sexually active, young people have fewer multiple partners and there’s an increased use of condoms among those with multiple partners. And HIV prevalence among young people is dropping in many key countries.

Despite remarkable recent successes in the global response to HIV, punitive laws, policies, practices, stigma and human rights violations (see Annex) are threatening progress towards universal access targets and the Millennium Development Goals. Successful strategies for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support require supportive legal, regulatory and social environments that advance human rights, gender equality and social justice goals. Punishing and stigmatizing environments, in contrast, can increase people’s vulnerability to HIV infection, reduce access to and use of HIV services and other health and social services, discourage individual behaviour change, and increase the impact of HIV on people already living with the virus and on their families and communities.

Worldwide, nearly 3 million injecting drug users are living with HIV, and 13 million more are at risk of HIV infection. However, HIV service coverage for drug users is well below 10%, making universal access for this population and the related Millennium Development Goals distant targets.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of serious illness and death among people living with HIV, despite being curable and preventable. The need for an integrated approach to addressing HIV and TB (HIV/TB), as intersecting epidemics, is extremely urgent and increasing.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reflect the global resolve to achieve unprecedented, radical progress across a broad range of health and international development priorities. The MDGs were endorsed by the global community at the turn of the century. Since then, substantial gains have been made towards many of them.2 Progress has been uneven, however, with major achievements in some countries and regions offset by inadequate progress elsewhere, and with significant inequalities within countries as to who benefits. The global development and economic context in which these goals were agreed has also shifted considerably, creating new challenges and opportunities—and calls for new solutions—in the campaign to achieve the MDGs.

UNAIDS Expanded Business Case: Enhancing Social Protection

Zogby International was commissioned by UNAIDS to conduct an online survey of adults with Internet access in 25 countries. The survey was conducted between 30 March 2010 and 27 April 2010. A sampling of Zogby International’s online panel, which is representative of the adult population of the United States, was invited to participate. For all other nations, partner panel members were invited to participate.

L’ONUSIDA est un partenariat innovant des Nations Unies qui guide
et mobilise le monde en vue de mettre en place un accès universel à la prévention, au traitement, aux soins et à l’appui en matière de VIH.

Le VIH a un impact significatif sur la santé et la survie maternelles et infanto-juvéniles. Au niveau mondial, la proportion de personnes vivant avec le VIH qui est composée de femmes est restée stable et représente environ 50 %. Toutefois, la part représentée par les femmes dans les cas d’infection par le VIH est disproportionnée, tout particulièrement en Afrique subsaharienne, où on estime que 60 % des personnes vivant avec le VIH sont des femmes. Le VIH est désormais pour les femmes en âge de procréer la principale cause de mortalité à l’échelle mondiale, avec des taux de mortalité maternelle associés au VIH qui augmentent et qui dépassent toutes les autres causes de mortalité.