UN, June – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Wednesday, urged the International Community to urgently strengthen and sustain efforts to ensure that all children can live free of HIV and their mothers alive and well.
Ban made the call in New York, while declaring open the High-Level Meeting on “Ending AIDS’’.
He also urged the international community to reinforce and expand the unique, multi-sector, multi-actor approach of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), as an integral element of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
“This means making sure that we meet the annual target of 26 billion dollars in funding, including 13 billion dollars for the next three years, through the Global Fund’s Fifth Replenishment.
“It means continued advocacy to the most vulnerable groups; and approaches that promote gender equality and empower women.
“It means leaving no one behind and removing punitive laws, policies and practices that violate people’s dignity and human rights,’’ he said.
Ban added, that“It means that everyone affected must have access to comprehensive HIV services, without discrimination: young people, migrants, women and girls, sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people and prisoners.
“And it means that this meeting must issue a strong political declaration, to galvanize the commitment that will be needed to meet this challenge’’.
He said that the future of people with HIV and AIDS, many of whom are children and among the most vulnerable must be central to every decision.
The AIDS response, he added, is a source of innovation and inspiration, demonstrating what is possible when science, community activism, political leadership, passion and compassion come together.
In many low-income countries, he said that treatment is scarce.
In 2007, he said, only three million people, one third of those in need, had access to life saving antiretroviral drugs.
“We have made enormous progress.
“Since 2000 the global total of people receiving antiretroviral treatment doubled every three to four years, thanks to cheaper drugs, increased competition and new funding.
“Today, more than 17 million people are being treated, saving millions of lives and billions of dollars.
“The world achieved Millennium Development Goal six.
“We have halted and begun to reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS. New HIV infections have declined by 35 per cent since 2000.
“AIDS-related deaths have gone down by 43 per cent since 2003,’’ he said.
Ban said that progress and investment in the AIDS response has changed the face of global health.
He said that they have strengthened health systems, social protection and community resilience.
These approaches and mechanisms, he added, are a model to meet the many challenges that result in repeated disease outbreaks and new epidemics.
“AIDS is far from over.
“Over the next five years, we have a window of opportunity to radically change the trajectory of the epidemic and put an end to AIDS forever.
“In spite of remarkable progress, if we do not act, there is a danger the epidemic will rebound in low- and middle-income countries,’’ he said.
Also speaking, UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, reiterated his called for combination prevention to be Fast-Track investments in HIV prevention.
Although HIV resources have grown overall, he said, spending on prevention has not kept pace.
Sidibé said to reduce the number of people newly infected with HIV globally to the Fast-Track Target of fewer than 500 000 by 2020, towards ending the HIV epidemic as a public health threat by 2030, countries need to Fast-Track HIV combination prevention.
Although there has been a significant decline in the number of new HIV infections since 2001, he said, recent trends are disappointing.
The most recent UNAIDS data released in the Global AIDS update 2016 on May 31, he said, show that the number of new HIV infections has in fact stagnated since the High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS, held in 2011.
He said increased provision and education around the use of condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis and voluntary medical male circumcision were encouraged, alongside empowering young people and key populations to enable them to protect themselves.
Sidibé said no fewer than two million people are still newly infected with HIV annually, two thirds of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.
“New HIV infections are particularly high among adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than 5,000 newly infected every week.
“I call on leaders in the region to commit to redouble efforts to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support as a critical step towards ending the global HIV epidemic,’’he said. (NAN)