Dozens of African countries have made limited progress and are unlikely to meet UNAIDS targets for HIV testing and condom use by 2030, researchers reported at the HIV Research for Prevention virtual conference.
Phuong Nguyen, a PhD candidate at St. Luke’s International University Graduate School of Public Health in Tokyo, and colleagues assessed survey data from more than 1.4 million sexually active individuals aged between 15 and 49 years in 38 African countries from 2003 to 2018 and used modeling to estimate what the prevalence of annual HIV testing and condom use will be for every country and year through 2030. The UNIADS target is 95% coverage for both.
“Condom use and HIV testing are the key paths of treatment as prevention strategies, and I actually think [hitting the] targets for these strategies is essential to eliminate HIV in Africa,” Nguyen said during a press conference.
Indeed, a UNAIDS report published last year said condoms “remain a cornerstone of effective prevention programming,” but that investments and programming for condoms “remain suboptimal.”