Know your response

While significant progress has been made in the global AIDS response, the epidemic is not yet over.

The Ministry of Health and Sports of Myanmar launched the country’s latest five-year HIV plan on 17 May. The plan provides a road map on how to Fast-Track the national HIV response and end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.

South Africa has made great strides in its AIDS response—it has the largest HIV treatment programme in the world, with more than 3.3 million people on antiretroviral therapy, funded almost entirely from domestic sources; AIDS-related deaths have declined by more than 55% since 2005; and around 95% of all pregnant women living with HIV in South Africa now have access to medicines to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to their child.

There are an estimated 69 000 people living with HIV in Benin. The number of new HIV infections among children continues to fall as pregnant women living with HIV gain access to life-saving antiretroviral medicines to stop babies from becoming infected during childbirth and breastfeeding.

UNAIDS has presented Professor Peng Liyuan, the First Lady of China, with the UNAIDS Award for Outstanding Achievement in recognition of her remarkable contribution to the global response to HIV.

Upon the release of compelling new evidence of national AIDS programme successes in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, UNAIDS congratulates the countries as well as the United States of America for its consistently outstanding support to the global AIDS response.

The Director for the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa, Sheila Tlou, has visited Uganda to advocate for accelerated action to address the trend of rising new HIV infections in the country. According to UNAIDS data, 360 new HIV infections occur per week in Uganda among adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24 years.

Strengthened global political commitment to HIV prevention must be followed by strengthened financial commitment. The successes of the global AIDS response to date have been fuelled by extraordinary investment. The total amount of financial resources for AIDS responses in low- and middle-income countries reached an estimated US$ 19 billion in 2015, double the amount of resources available in 2006. However, international funding for in-country services in 2015 declined for the second year in a...

At a conference entitled HIV: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, experts discussed the urgent measures that Kazakhstan should take to Fast-Track the AIDS response in the country. More than 170 governmental officials, activists, scientists, experts, health-care professionals and representatives of the AIDS community from all 16 regions of Kazakhstan gathered in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 12 to 13 October for the conference.

Parliamentarians should collaborate worldwide to end the AIDS epidemic, according to the participants of the Ending the AIDS Epidemic as a Public Health Threat by 2030 workshop, which took place during the opening day of the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany.