ABSTRACT
A recent global report showed that an estimated 34 million people are living with human immunodefi ciency virus/acquired immunodefi ciency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) worldwide, and 50 percent of them know their HIV status. In addition, over 2.5 million new cases are diagnosed each year, 14.8
1Department of Pathology, Clinical Analysis, and Toxicology, Health Sciences Center, State University of Londrina; Clinical Immunology and Molecular Diagnosis Laboratories, University Hospital of Londrina, State University of Londrina, Brazil. Avenue Robert Koch, 60, CEP 86.038-440, Londrina, Paraná, Brazil. aEmail: reiche@sercomtel.com.br bEmail: helena@sercomtel.com.br cEmail: elainedelicato@hotmail.com dEmail:deianame@yahoo.com.br 2Health Sciences Postgraduate Program, Health Sciences Center, State University of Londrina, Av. Robert Koch, 60, CEP 86.038-440, Londrina, Paraná, Brazil. eEmail: sayonarauel@hotmail.com fEmail: anapaulakallaur@yahoo.com.br *Corresponding author
million people are eligible for HIV treatment, and eight million people are on HIV treatment worldwide (UNAIDS 2012). Fortunately, since the emergence of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1996, morbidity and mortality associated with HIV-1 infection have been markedly decreased. In just the past two years, HIV treatment access grew by 63 percent around the world. The massive scale up over the last 24 mon enabled 10 of thousands of people living with HIV to receive lifesaving antiretroviral therapy for the fi rst time. In sub-Saharan Africa, a record 2.3 million people were added to treatment programs in the last two years, refl ecting an increase of 59 percent . With this, the number of people dying from AIDS-related causes began to decline in the mid-2000s because of scaled up antiretroviral therapy and the steady decline in HIV incidence since the peak of the epidemic in 1997. In 2011, this decline continued, with evidence showing that the drop in the number of people dying from AIDS-related causes is accelerating in several countries. The treatment gap in low-and middle-income countries and antiretroviral therapy reached eight million people by the end of 2011, a 20-fold increase since 2003. In 2011, for the fi rst time, a majority (54 percent) of people eligible for antiretroviral therapy in low-and middle-income countries was receiving it (UNAIDS 2012).
