Update

A call to Fast-Track access to antiretroviral therapy

05 October 2015

The International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, in collaboration with the City of Paris, UNAIDS, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, hosted in Paris, the fourth annual summit aimed at expanding access to antiretroviral therapy to stop AIDS-related deaths and help prevent new HIV infections.

During the two-day discussions, participants focused on the need to Fast-Track progress towards the UNAIDS 90-90-90 treatment targets and on the important role PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis—antiretroviral medicine taken to prevent HIV infection) can play in HIV prevention efforts. The discussions were particularly timely as the World Health Organization had just released important new guidelines and recommendations on expanding access to antiretroviral therapy and PrEP.

Clinicians, researchers, public health policy-makers, government officials, donors and civil society representatives explored ways of generating demand for and increasing access to HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care services globally.

Speaking at a high-level panel entitled Leadership to End AIDS by 2030: Do We Have What it Takes?, Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, highlighted the fact that no one believed that 15 million people could be on life-saving HIV treatment by 2015. And yet, that goal was achieved ahead of schedule. He stressed the need to use the many lessons learned to reach people left behind, such as prisoners, people who use drugs, and young women and adolescent girls.

Participants also noted that there is a global consensus to end the AIDS epidemic and to consider health as an investment, not a cost. However, financing remains a concern. The participants agreed that both international and domestic funding had to increase and that more funding could be obtained from the private sector.

Quotes

“We have a fragile five-year window to Fast-Track the response to HIV and put the world on track to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Scaling up access to antiretroviral therapy will be central to achieving this global goal.”

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director

"To control the AIDS epidemic one needs conviction and courage followed by concrete acts… Paris stands by you in this fight. We have no other choice but to stand together."

Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris

“Ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 – a goal contained in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – requires that we use every tool at our disposal, including life-saving and -enhancing ART, without further delay. With the science and evidence-based normative guidance firmly behind us, we have a moral obligation to achieving the end of AIDS by leveraging the therapeutic and preventive effects of ART to make AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections exceedingly rare.”

José Zuniga IAPAC President

"There are four key elements to meet our target of ending the AIDS epidemic: social mobilization, transparency, political decision making and alternative ways of funding. We must change the status quo if we want to move forward."

Lelio Marmora, UNITAID Executive Director

"We will achieve the 90-90-90 targets but questions do remain regarding the 36 million people who are infected and how we must emphasize prevention for the next generations to come. And our real challenge now is to focus on finding an AIDS vaccine."

Jean-Francois Delfraissy, Director of the Agence nationale de recherche sur le Sida et les hépatites virales

"If you do not support communities in a robust approach and support them financially you cannot end the AIDS epidemic. We have to urge leaders to think the job is not done just because policies have been put into place."

Kenly Sikwese of the African Community Advisory Board based in Zambia