This year, on 1 December, the 35th anniversary of World AIDS Day is being marked under the theme "Remember and Commit" and serves as a reminder of the global fight to end HIV-related stigma, an opportunity to honor those we have lost and a call for commitment to work towards the day when HIV is no longer a public health threat.

According to WHO, 39 million people worldwide were living with HIV in 2022 (including 1.5 million children). Among them, only 76% were receiving treatment. 630,000 people died from HIV-related causes worldwide, including 84,000 children.

As for the data for Ukraine: as of 01.07.2023, 158,308 people living with HIV were under medical supervision in healthcare facilities, which is 386.1 per 100,000 people. According to official registration data, the highest HIV prevalence per 100 thousand people was registered in Odesa (1131.3), Dnipro (963.0), Mykolaiv (748.8), Kyiv (481.2), Chernihiv (433.1) regions and in Kyiv city (642.1).

Despite a 51% reduction in HIV-related deaths since 2010, HIV continues to be a serious global problem, claiming 40.4 million lives.

An important discovery for overcoming HIV infection was the formula H = H - "undetectable = non-transmissible": antiretroviral drugs prevent the virus from multiplying in the human body, provided they are taken daily. Over time, the level of viral load in the blood becomes so low that the virus is undetectable during testing. If the undetectable level persists for six months, it is virtually impossible to transmit HIV through sexual contact, during pregnancy, and the risk to healthcare workers during surgeries/manipulations is significantly reduced.

In the UK, there are virtually no cases of HIV-positive babies being born, while in Ukraine, 100 newborns with HIV were born last month alone!!!

In 2016, the results of the largest study of the H = H formula - the PARTNER study in 14 European countries - were presented. The results showed that there was no HIV transmission in 58,000 cases of condomless sex in couples where one of the partners was HIV-positive and taking antiretroviral drugs (888 couples participated in the study).

This discovery became the basis for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS to approve an ambitious plan to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030. The strategy is that 90% of all HIV-positive people should know their HIV status, 90% of them should take antiretroviral therapy (ART), and 90% of those taking ART should have undetectable viral loads, meaning they cannot transmit HIV.

On viral hepatitis: according to rough estimates, up to 5% of the population of Ukraine is infected with hepatitis C and 1-2.5% with hepatitis B. Limited access to diagnosis and treatment, the conditions of first aid during the hostilities do not allow for a full assessment of the burden and contribute to an increase in the number of hepatitis and HIV infections.

On 27 November 2019, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the State Strategy, the main goal of which is to overcome the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis as global health threats by 2030.

Department of Infection Control of the State Institution "TMA of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Chernihiv Oblast".