“We have been able to provide HIV tests, treatment and guidance to an increasing number of children and young people,” says Bence Maziku from Tanzania. Maziku works in an AIDS service centre in Dar es Salaam that provides drugs free-of-charge to 26,000 HIV patients. Thanks to Maziku’s workplace and other similar centres, Tanzania has succeeded in reducing the number of new HIV infections by 60 per cent from 2011 to 2016.

Globally, the number of new HIV infections has dropped by 40 per cent between 2000 and 2013. The main means of preventing new infections and AIDS-related deaths are HIV drugs. A total of 13.6 million HIV-infected patients received the medication in 2014. A decade ago, only 800,000 HIV patients received the drugs they needed.

The fight against HIV/AIDS continues. Most of the infected live in sub-Saharan Africa. Less than 30 per cent of women and 37 per cent of men in the region received accurate information about HIV and its prevention in 2014. Finland supports the work against HIV/AIDS in developing countries through Unicef and UNAIDS.

Photo: Eija Palosuo, graphics: Juho Hiilivirta