Advocacy

UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador urges people to test for HIV and to seek treatment if necessary  

GENEVA, 23 November 2018—A little over one week before World AIDS Day, UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador Victoria Beckham has visited the organization’s Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters to support calls for people to know their HIV status and to seek treatment for HIV if necessary.

“I am really happy to be in Geneva to support UNAIDS in the run-up to World AIDS Day,” said Ms Beckham during her visit. “We need to make sure that people feel supported to take an HIV test by ending the stigma and discrimination still too often associated with the virus. Today, we have the medicines to keep people healthy and to stop the virus being transmitted. AIDS isn’t over yet, but it can be.”

UNAIDS estimates that there were around 36.9 million people living with HIV worldwide in 2017, with around 21.7 million people accessing life-saving medicines that keep people alive and well and stop the transmission of the virus. However, UNAIDS also estimates that around one in four people worldwide continue to be unaware that they are living with HIV.

During the visit, the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, met with Ms Beckham to thank her for her support and to discuss the latest developments in the AIDS response.

“We have made a lot of progress in expanding access to treatment, but the number of people who don’t know their HIV status is still far too high,” said Mr Sidibé. “We have to make sure that people have access to testing services and are provided with treatment immediately if they need it. We also have to make sure that people have access to the full range of HIV prevention options to bring down the number of new HIV infections.”

Thanks to antiretroviral therapy, AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by more than 51% since the peak in 2004. In 2017, 940 000 people died from an AIDS-related illness worldwide, compared to 1.9 million in 2004. In 2017, however, there were 1.8 million new HIV infections.

In many regions of the world, women continue to be the worst affected by the epidemic and every week 6600 young women aged 15–24 years become infected with HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa, three in four new infections among adolescents aged 15–19 years are among girls, and young women aged 15–24 years are twice as likely to be living with HIV than men.

In other regions, the epidemic is concentrated among key populations, such as gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, people who inject drugs, prisoners and other incarcerated people and migrants.

It is estimated that around 35.4 million people worldwide have died from an AID-related illness since the start of the epidemic.

1 December 2018

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first World AIDS Day. Thirty years of activism and solidarity under the banner of World AIDS Day. Thirty years of campaigning for universal access to life-saving services to treat and prevent HIV. But after 30 years, AIDS is still not over. We have miles to go.

World AIDS Day is a day to remember the millions of people who have lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses, many of whom died because they couldn’t access HIV services, because of stigma, because of discrimination and because of criminalization of key populations.

On this World AIDS Day, UNAIDS is campaigning for people to know their HIV status and their viral load. In 2017, 9.4 million people were simply unaware that they are living with a potentially deadly, but treatable, disease. If people don’t know their HIV status, people who are living with HIV can’t start treatment, and people who are HIV-negative can’t get the knowledge and skills they need to keep that way. If people don’t know their HIV status, they can’t protect themselves, their families, their partners. If people living with HIV don’t know their viral load, they won’t be sure that the treatment is effective, protecting their health and stopping HIV transmission.

Live life positively. Know your HIV status.

Michel Sidibé

Executive Director of UNAIDS

Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Of the 1.8 million children aged 0–14 years living with HIV globally, 1.7 million are in Africa. As part of efforts to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Africa, the African Union and the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), with support from UNAIDS, and partners launched a campaign called Free To Shine in early 2018.

Now the campaign is ready to be rolled out across 42 African countries but urgently needs funding. To enable the roll-out, the African Union and OAFLA held an event on the margins of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly to help raise much-needed resources to support the campaign.

The roll-out of the campaign will allow OAFLA members to engage in community-level activities to help reduce stigma and discrimination at home and in the community, raise community awareness about the importance of adherence to treatment and retention in care for pregnant women and women who are breastfeeding and to promote male involvement.

As part of the campaign, the first ladies will also leverage their unique position to influence policy-makers and agenda-setters to better address the needs of women living with HIV—advocating for policies and laws that discourage stigma and discrimination based on HIV status and for the removal of user fees for pregnant women and women who are breastfeeding, as well as other barriers that limit access to HIV and health services.

The session was moderated by television and radio journalist Zeinab Badawi. 

Analysis of social media use shows that, on the whole, most users tend to engage most with information that aligns to their existing beliefs and perceptions on the world. This phenomenon has been described as the echo chamber effect, whereby users find themselves surrounded, in general, by content from like-minded people and preferred information sources.

Echo chambers can be an opportunity as well as a barrier in the response to HIV. Some online communities offer spaces for people to access and share HIV-related information and resources in a stigma-free manner. On the other hand, echo chambers can also enhance stigmatization, promote discriminatory behaviours or spread inaccurate or false information. To some extent, the echo chamber effect can limit the ability of individuals or organizations to reach people outside of their natural audience bases.

UNAIDS and ViiV Healthcare chaired a symposium on breaking out of such echo chambers at the International AIDS Conference, being held from 23 to 27 July in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The panellists discussed various ways of being heard in a cluttered digital and non-digital space that has radically changed in the past decades.

Science magazine reporter Jon Cohen explained how he uses print, radio, television and Twitter to keep up with the onslaught of news. Despite the non-stop nature of his job, he stressed the importance of quality journalism.

“A medium is a medium and sadly a lot of people do not use the vehicle they have to tell stories well,” he said, likening it to a doctor not using his sharpest tool during an operation. In his opinion, it’s easy to lose readers and viewers, so he advised people to engage as much as possible with their audience and avoid preaching to people.

“Even if I offend people, I describe the reality, because I want you to see it and feel it,” he said.

Georgia Arnold, the Executive Director of the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, explained that the HIV television drama Shuga had had such a successful run for the past nine years because the show focused on teens and spoke to them at their level. It depicts relatable characters that deal with real issues and there is constant youth-based feedback. Recently, MTV introduced a gay character, which she said demanded some adjustment because some countries outlaw homosexuality.

“Use technology to transcend boundaries,” she said, explaining how MTV had to air two versions of the show but uploaded the gay version to YouTube and followed up on Twitter and Instagram. “Flex boundaries, do not smash them,” she advised.

J.P. Mokgethi-Heath couldn’t agree more. He is a policy adviser on HIV and theology for the Church of Sweden and uses his pulpit and sacred texts to reach his audience. “I help people understand texts in a different way,” he said. For him, his style of storytelling in person leads to an immediate response, so he aims to always stay true to his beliefs.

Immediacy and immersion drove Rowan Pybus and Sydelle Willow-Smith to try their hand at virtual reality video-making. The founders of Makhulu Productions based their 3-D short films on young South Africans’ experiences and highlighted one adolescent girl’s journey with HIV, making viewers feel like they are walking into a clinic for an HIV test.

“Virtual reality can have a physical effect on people, and that is a very exciting space to be in,” Mr Pybus said. Ms Willow-Smith added that the fact that Google, UNAIDS, the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation and the Children’s Radio Foundation all partnered to make the films possible reflects how there is real interest to “break out of individual echo chambers.”

UNAIDS Communications Director Mahesh Mahalingam said that World AIDS Day provides a great opportunity to reach out to people about HIV. Last year, he said, UNAIDS wanted to communicate in a fresh way. The team produced a magazine-like report on the right to health in general, going beyond issues related to HIV. Various communities weighed-in in a series of questions and answers on what the right to health means to them.

“People got to say what they wanted through the UNAIDS mouthpiece, allowing us to break barriers and reach new audiences,” he said.

The symposium ended with ViiV Healthcare and UNAIDS announcing a new digital storytelling challenge prize. “If you feel you engage hard-to-reach groups on issues related to HIV prevention, testing, care and/or stigma, then apply,” said ViiV Healthcare Positive Action’s Jennifer Carpenter. She also recognized the two winners of the Every Footstep Counts video competition, Rogers Simiyu from the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and Joseph Baguma of THETA-Uganda.

UNAIDS is remembering the life and work of Calle Almedal, UNAIDS Senior Adviser on Partnerships with Civil Society and Faith-Based Organizations from 1997 to 2007. He was born in Sweden in 1945 and died on 7 June 2018 following a long battle with cancer.

“Calle Almedal was an outstanding professional, a passionate advocate and a personal friend and colleague. His legacy lives on in the lives of people of faith and of no faith in every corner of the world,” said Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of UNAIDS.

Mr Almedal pioneered UNAIDS’ work with a wide range of civil society groups. Through his work, new and innovative partnerships were forged that developed the capacity of partners to respond to the HIV epidemic. For example, he brokered a partnership between the Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Global Network of People Living with HIV that resulted in the IFRC’s offices offering space to newly formed country networks of people living with HIV.

However, he is best known for his work with the faith community. He championed the concept of AIDS-competent churches and was a passionate advocate for human rights and justice for people living with HIV. He also championed the rights of people on the margins of society, particularly people ostracized by faith communities.

A person of faith himself, Mr Almedal challenged faith communities to address issues inside their own communities that put people at risk of HIV before addressing issues outside of the community. Without this so-called in-reach work, he explained that the church would lose its credibility—he gave the same challenge to UNAIDS.

He worked in a way that drew people towards him. He was known for his quick wit, keen sense of humour and sharp critique—a combination of qualities that, along with his dedication, passion and drive, made his work in partnerships so successful.

Mr Almedal trained in nursing and public health and theology. Prior to joining UNAIDS, he served in Lebanon, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mozambique, Thailand and Yemen with the Norwegian Red Cross.

The UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, has completed a five-day visit to three countries in southern Africa. The mission included high-level political discussions, the launch of the Lesotho HIV health and situation room and a frank and open dialogue with women activists about how to address sexual harassment and abuse.

Beginning in Lesotho, Mr Sidibé attended the launch of the HIV health and situation room with the Deputy Prime Minister, Monyane Moleleki. Special guest Naomi Campbell was invited by UNAIDS to join the two-day country visit to learn more about the HIV response.

The Lesotho HIV and health situation room shows real-time service delivery data, producing a comprehensive picture and understanding of Lesotho’s HIV epidemic. It enables quick feedback on results at the national and community levels and identifies bottlenecks in access to health-care services.

“The launch of the Lesotho HIV and health situation room gives us access to data to shape impactful and efficient health programmes. These are the kind of innovations that will bring services to those who need them most and ensure that no one is left behind by the AIDS response,” said Michel Sidibé, the UNAIDS Executive Director.

On the eve of the launch, Mr Sidibé and Ms Campbell visited the Queen II Hospital in Maseru, Lesotho, and met with young women living with HIV and others affected by the epidemic.

“I commend the Government of Lesotho and its partners for the progress made in the AIDS response. But the work is far from done. The reality is that we are not reaching adolescent girls and young women. I leave Lesotho today empowered, inspired, encouraged and determined to do all I can to highlight this critical issue,” said Ms Campbell.

In South Africa, Mr Sidibé addressed the Pan African Parliament and underlined the importance of integrated health approaches that were people-centred. He urged parliamentarians to commit more domestic funding for health services to increase the sustainability of the AIDS response and to put in place more preventative measures to improve people’s health. In addition, he called for laws to protect women and vulnerable groups. 

Mr Sidibé left the parliamentary session to meet civil society activists concerned by UNAIDS' response to allegations of sexual harassment and abuse in the organization.

At a follow-up meeting the next day, Mr Sidibé and women activists met to discuss their concerns.

Mr Sidibé agreed with activists to issue a statement following the meeting. The statement begins:

‘During my recent visit to South Africa, I listened carefully to you, I heard you. The HIV epidemic is inextricably linked to sexual and gender-based violence and the two can never be separated. We need the passion of advocates to move issues forward.`

During his visit to South Africa, Mr Sidibé held separate meetings with the President, Cyril Ramaphosa, the Deputy President and South African National AIDS Council Chair, David Mabuza, and the Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi. They discussed plans to increase the number of people on treatment by 2 million by 2020 and the need to empower local and provincial authorities to bring treatment and prevention services closer to vulnerable communities.

The last leg of Mr Sidibé’s visit saw him arrive in Lusaka, Zambia, to confer the 2018 UNAIDS Leadership Award upon Kenneth Kaunda for his efforts in strengthening the AIDS response.  

Russian and international football legends and Russian players living with HIV joined forces on 17 April to play the first football match of the UNAIDS World Cup for Ending AIDS and Discrimination. International and national football stars draw attention to the stigma faced by people living with HIV and demonstrated the value of goodwill, solidarity, and human values towards ending stigma and discrimination.

The match took place in Moscow on the eve of the opening of the Sixth Eastern Europe and Central Asia AIDS Conference. This was the first of a series of matches to be held with support from FIFA in several different countries in the lead up to the 2018 World Cup which will be held in the Russian Federation from 14 June to 15 July 2018. The initiative highlights the need for zero discrimination on the basis of race, nationality or HIV status, both on and off the pitch.  

The Russian FC “Rosich” team was led by its captain, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the FIFA World Cup 2018, Arkady Dvorkovich. Team members included the Minister of Energy, Alexander Novak, the former Russian international and FIFA Anti-Discrimination Officer for the 2018 World Cup, Alexey Smertin, as well as former Russian internationals Dmitry Bulykin, Roman Shirokov, Evgeny Aldonin, Dmitry Sennikov, Oleg Kornaukhov, Marat Makhmutov, Vladimir Leonchenko and Roman Berezovsky.

Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS Executive Director, coached the UNAIDS “Red Ribbon” team, which was captained by former Cameroon international Samuel Eto’o. The Red Ribbon team featured former Senegal international, Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, former French and Martinique international, Julien Faubert, former French under-21 international, Florent Sinama-Pongolle, former Nigerian international, Peter Odemwingie, former Moroccan international, Jaouad Zairi, Brazilian-born former Bulgarian international, Marcelo da Costa, former Palestinian women international and FIFA official, Hone Thalidjieh, and former Madagascar international, Alister Veerasamy.

By Tom Rosshirt — Originally published in Creators Syndicate on 20 June 2012

My brother Matt died of AIDS 26 years ago today, passing away in his bed in my parents' home in Houston.

It was a benighted time for people with AIDS. There were no antiretrovirals then. There was nothing much you could do for an AIDS patient but hold his hand. And many people still thought you could get AIDS by touching. My parents knew of individuals who'd been fired from their jobs for volunteering for AIDS organizations. That's how crazy the fear was.

As Matt was dying, we were befriended by a man named Lou Tesconi, a volunteer from the local AIDS organization. Lou came by to visit with Matt and to offer whatever service and kindness he could to my mom and dad.

Shortly after Matt died, Lou began studies to become a Catholic priest. Within the year, he was diagnosed with AIDS and kicked out of the seminary. Lou was a lawyer by training and temperament. He appealed the judgment to a Catholic bishop, who then asked Lou to found and head a ministry for people with AIDS. It was called Damien Ministries and was established in a poor part of Washington, D.C.

In early 1989, when the country was still very ignorant and fearful of AIDS, Lou got a call from the White House. First lady Barbara Bush was planning to visit Grandma's House, a home for infants with AIDS. It was one of the very first outings in her tenure as first lady, and Lou was asked to join a team of people to brief her privately before the event.

During the briefing, Lou told me later, he said: "Mrs Bush, it is a fantastic thing that you are holding these babies with AIDS. But the country sees them as innocent and the rest of us with AIDS as guilty. The whole suffering AIDS community needs a collective embrace from you today."

Lou thought he was speaking metaphorically. Apparently, Mrs Bush doesn't do metaphor. She stood up, walked over to Lou and gave him a big hug.

After the briefing, Mrs Bush took a tour of the facility as she talked to the press. She hugged, kissed and played with three little girls and then nailed the message: "You can hug and pick up babies and people who have ... HIV. ... There is a need for compassion."

At the news conference afterward, Lou stood by his point on Mrs Bush's visit: "I'm afraid that it may send a message that babies are innocent and can be helped," he said, "but that the rest of us aren't." He added: "I told her it would certainly help to get a collective hug from the first lady."

Then, again, this time in front of the cameras, Mrs Bush wrapped Lou up in a big embrace.

Mrs Bush wrote of this visit in her memoirs. She noted that "even then, people still thought that touching a person with the virus was dangerous." But she didn't give herself any credit for dealing a blow against stigma by embracing a gay man with AIDS in 1989.

Lou had a buzz from that hug that never went away.

In the fall of 1991, near Thanksgiving, I got a call from a friend that Lou had gone into the hospital again. He didn't have to tell me that it was for the last time. I called the White House and asked whether I could speak to the first lady's office. I was a nobody press secretary on the Hill. I didn't expect anyone in the White House to talk to me. Suddenly, I was speaking with the first lady's press secretary, Anna Perez, who had accompanied Mrs Bush to Grandma's House that day. I began to recount the events of two years before, and she saved me the time: "I remember Mr Tesconi," she said. I explained Lou's condition and said, "It would be so comforting for him to receive a letter from Mrs Bush."

A few days later, I went to see Lou in the hospital. As soon as he saw me, he reached beside his bed with a slow and shaky hand and pulled out a letter: "Look what I got," he said.

The letter was unflinching and full of love. She didn't duck the issue that Lou was dying. She used it as a pivot to say, "Well-done." At the bottom, in her own hand, she wrote to Lou that his life mattered, that he had made an impact.

That was a long time ago. But some things you don't forget — and shouldn't. In a time of ignorance, her wise touch eased the sting of exclusion for my friend and many others.

Thank you, Mrs Bush.

Tom Rosshirt was a national security speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and a foreign affairs spokesman for Vice President Al Gore.

Staff from Globo Television visited UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on their way to Cannes, France, for the 2018 Emmy Kids Awards. Globo and UNAIDS were nominated for an Emmy Kids Award in the digital category for the web series Young Hearts—I Just Want to Love, which focuses on a high school romance between a teenager living with HIV and his girlfriend. 

The series was a spin-off from Brazil’s longest running soap opera, Malhação—Seu Lugar No Mundo (Young Hearts—Your Place in the World), a production developed and broadcast by Globo. Among several teen love stories in the season, the one between Henrique and Camilla became a hit with the audience. The soap averages a daily audience of 24 million viewers, mainly pre-adolescents and their parents. UNAIDS, an official partner with Globo since 2015, gave technical advice and support to the writers of the show.

UNAIDS, Globo and Gshow produced the web spin-off, which is available on the Globo streaming platform. The five-episode web series became the third most watched original series on the platform, with almost 1 million views.

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, congratulated Globo, explaining how media plays a key role in stopping HIV stigma and exclusion. He praised the Globo partnership for using edutainment to reach young people with compelling and relevant HIV information.

Emmanuel Jacobina, the writer of Young Hearts—Your Place in the World for the 2015–2016 season and the web series, said that the idea came from a conversation he had with the UNAIDS team about HIV in Brazil. It disturbed him, he said, that despite there being methods for prevention, tens of thousands of people still become infected with HIV each year in Brazil. As a result, the web series, he said, seemed the best place to push the debate further and speak bluntly about relationships, sexuality and HIV.

The Director of Corporate and Social Responsibility at Globo, Beatriz Azeredo, reiterated the company’s commitment to mobilize Brazilian society around major social issues with television series and public service announcements. Globo’s Director of Communications, Sergio Valente, noted Globo’s presence in more than 100 countries and said that it has a 99% reach in Brazilian homes.

Of the three nominees in the digital category, the award went to the Norwegian series Jenter (Young Girls), produced by NRK.

UNAIDS is working towards ensuring that 90% of young people have the skills, knowledge and capacity to protect themselves from HIV and have access to sexual and reproductive health services by 2020.

The United Nations Women for Peace Association (UNWDPA) has honoured Lorena Castillo de Varela, the First Lady of Panama and UNAIDS Special Ambassador for AIDS in Latin America, with its Leadership Award. The award was made in recognition of her work in the response to HIV and the promotion of human rights and women’s empowerment.

Presented at the UNWDPA Annual Award Luncheon, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States of America, on International Women’s Day, the award honours people who have made a difference to the lives of women and girls.

Since her appointment as a UNAIDS Special Ambassador in 2016, Lorena Castillo de Varela has led a zero discrimination campaign that has gone beyond the borders of Panama and become internationally recognized. In her role as Chairwoman of the National AIDS Commission, she catalysed support from 45 governmental institutions to sign an act of commitment to promote HIV prevention and zero discrimination.