Countries around the world are today marking World AIDS Day,
a day set aside since 1988 to raise awareness of the fight against the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
The UN agency that deals with combating the pandemic says
that a lot of progress has been made, but that there needs to be a push for
people to have a right to health services.
It says that 21 million people around the world are
receiving treatment but that 17 million others are missing out.
Michel Sidibe, the executive director of UNAids, said, the
goal to end Aids by 2030 will be severely undermined if access to health is not
considered a right:
"The world will not
achieve the Sustainable Development Goals - which include the target of ending
Aids by 2030 - without people attaining their right to health. The right to
health is interrelated with a range of other rights, including the rights to
sanitation, food, decent housing, healthy working conditions and a clean
environment. Western and central Africa is still being left behind. Two out of
three people are not accessing treatment. We cannot have a two-speed approach
to ending Aids."
BBC
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