The World Health Organisation new report has revealed that global HIV, viral hepatitis epidemics and sexually transmitted infection (STIs) have continued to pose significant public health challenges, causing 2.5 million deaths each year.
The new data showed that STIs are increasing in many regions, recalled that in 2022, WHO Member States set out ambitious target of reducing the annual number of adult syphilis infections by ten-fold by 2030, from 7.1 million to 0.71 million.
Adding that yet, the new syphilis cases among adults aged 15-49 years increased by over 1 million in 2022 reaching 8 million and the highest increases occurred in the Region for the Americas and the African Region.
Combined with insufficient decline seen in the reduction of new HIV and viral hepatitis infections, the report flagged threats to the attainment of the related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The new report implementing the global health sector strategies on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, 2022– 2030 while flagged major increase in sexually transmitted infections, amidst challenges in HIV and hepatitis.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedro Ghebreyesus said, the rising incidence of syphilis raises major concerns. “Fortunately, there has been important progress on a number of other fronts including in accelerating access to critical health commodities including diagnostics and treatment.
“We have the tools required to end these epidemics as public health threats by 2030, but we now need to ensure that, in the context of an increasingly complex world, countries do all they can to achieve the ambitious targets they set themselves”, Ghebreyesus added.
Speaking of the increasing incidence of sexually transmitted infections, the report mentioned four curable STIs, the syphilis (Treponema pallidum), the gonorrhoea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae), the chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis), and trichomoniasis (Trichomonas vaginalis) account for over one million infections daily.
The new data also showed an increase in multi-resistant gonorrhoea, as of 2023, out of 87 countries where enhanced gonorrhoea antimicrobial resistance surveillance was conducted, 9 countries reported elevated levels (from 5% to 40%) of resistance to ceftriaxone, the last line treatment for gonorrhoea.
Stated that WHO is monitoring the situation and has updated its recommended treatment to reduce the spread of this multi-resistant gonorrhoea strain, revealing that in 2022, around 1.2 million new hepatitis B cases and nearly 1 million new hepatitis C cases were recorded.
The report estimated number of deaths from viral hepatitis rose from 1.1 million in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2022 despite effective prevention, diagnosis, and treatment tools, says new HIV infections only reduced from 1.5 million in 2020 to 1.3 million in 2022.
It listed five key population groups, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers, transgender individuals, and individuals in prisons and other closed settings still experience significantly higher HIV prevalence rates than the general population.
An estimated 55% of new HIV infections occur among these populations and their partners. HIV-related deaths continue to be high. In 2022, there were 630 000 HIV related deaths, 13% of these occurring in children under the age of 15 years the report said.
It stated that countries and partners have made efforts to expand STIs, HIV, hepatitis services bringing formidable gains, adding that WHO validated 19 countries to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and/or syphilis, reflecting investments in testing and treatment coverage for these diseases among pregnant women.
It named Botswana and Namibia are on the path to eliminating HIV, with Namibia being the first country to submit a dossier to be evaluated for the triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis.
Globally, HIV treatment coverage reached 76%, with 93% of people receiving treatment achieving suppressed viral loads. Efforts to increase HPV vaccination and screening for women with HIV are ongoing. Diagnosis and treatment coverage for hepatitis B and C have seen slight improvements globally.
The report outlines the following recommendations for countries to strengthen shared approaches towards achieving the targets: implement policy and financing dialogues to develop cross-cutting investment cases and national-level sustainability plans;
Further consolidate, align disease-specific guidance, plans, and implementation support within a primary health care approach; accelerate efforts to address criminalization, stigma, and discrimination within health settings, particularly against populations most affected by HIV, viral hepatitis, and STIs;
Also, to expand multi-disease elimination approaches and packages, drawing from lessons learned from the triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission and strengthen the focus on primary prevention, diagnosis and treatment across the diseases to raise awareness, especially for hepatitis and STIs.
While the ambitious targets set by member states for 2025 and 2030 are helping to drive progress, the progress is patchy across disease areas. With many indicators remaining off-track to achieve global targets, more political will and commitment are to urgently accelerate the efforts.