Surge of Aids-related deaths feared as Covid pandemic puts gains at risk

UN calls for urgent focus on HIV/Aids as coronavirus blocks access to drugs and missed targets threaten to derail progress

Global progress on ending the Aids epidemic by 2030 could be blown off course by coronavirus, a senior UN director has warned.

Just a six-month disruption to medical supplies induced by Covid-19 could result in an extra 500,000 Aids-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2021, according to data modelling in the annual report from UNAids. The agency's executive director, Winnie Byanyima, said the world is already way off target on combating Aids, and the pandemic has the potential to blow us even further off course".