Data Watch: Closing a Persistent Gap in the AIDS Response

Posted by Share-Net NL on August 26, 2014 at 3:45 am



A new report from amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, and AVAC outlines the need for a new approach to tracking data to guide the key decisions that shape the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Critical and expensive decisions made with incomplete data are undermining the response—even as the systems for collecting this data continue to improve, the report found. Data Watch: Closing a Persistent Gap in the AIDS Response outlines corrective steps to sustain and expand the progress made in the past few years in the AIDS response and lays out key areas where better, more complete data is needed, including:

  • What proportion of people with HIV globally who are taking antiretroviral drugs remain connected to a clinical provider and have their virus fully suppressed, enabling them to remain healthy and avoid transmitting HIV to others?
  • What proportions of those communities most impacted by HIV (e.g., young women in Africa, gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender individuals, sex workers, people who inject drugs) do not have access to effective HIV prevention tools due to pervasive stigma or discrimination?
  • Is global AIDS funding focused on those programs that will have the greatest impact in reducing transmission and disease burden worldwide?
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