UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador GWA

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.

CAPE TOWN/GENEVA, 20 November 2017—The Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, has appointed the Associate Scientific Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa, Quarraisha Abdool Karim, as a UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV. The announcement was made in Cape Town during the launch of a new UNAIDS report, Right to health.

Professor Abdool Karim is one of the world’s leading AIDS researchers. She has made pioneering contributions to understanding the HIV epidemic among young people, especially among young women, and is a strong advocate for the rights of people living with and affected by HIV. In her new role as a UNAIDS Special Ambassador, she will focus on adolescents and HIV, while also championing the involvement of young women in science.

“I am delighted that Quarraisha Abdool Karim has accepted this position,” said Mr Sidibé. “A strong and consistent champion of young people living with and affected by HIV, she will use her new role to continue to translate scientific research and knowledge into people-centred solutions and prevention programmes to reduce the factors making young people so vulnerable to HIV infection. UNAIDS looks forward to supporting her work.”

Young people are particularly vulnerable to HIV. There were an estimated 610 000 new HIV infections among young people aged 15 to 24 in 2016, with young women accounting for 59% of new infections among this age group. In eastern and southern Africa, young women aged 15 to 24 years make up two thirds of new HIV infections among this age group.    

“As we increase our understanding of the HIV epidemic and the transmission dynamics that place young people at higher risk of infection, all sectors of society must work together to make sure that adolescents have access to the information and services that can keep them safe and well through a crucial period of their lives and into adulthood,” said Professor Abdool Karim.

Professor Abdool Karim is Professor in Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, United States of America, and an Honorary Professor in Public Health at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She is a member of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel and Scientific Adviser to the Executive Director of UNAIDS.

In 2013, Professor Abdool Karim was awarded South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe, for her contribution to the response to HIV.

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.

UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador Kenneth Cole has made a powerful call for social justice in the AIDS response during his intervention at the 2017 Human Rights Council Social Forum, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 3 to 4 October.

“It has been said that stigma has killed more people than the HIV virus,” said Mr Cole. “At its roots, this is about intolerance and discrimination. Social justice is non-negotiable.”

While delivering the keynote address at the session entitled Building Synergies for Health: Engaging Diverse Partners, Mr Cole also underlined that all sectors of society, including the private sector, must act together to end the epidemic.

“I believe that business brings to the table efficiencies, economies and a culture of change,” he said. 

The Social Forum is an annual three-day meeting convened by the Human Rights Council. The theme of the 2017 session of the Social Forum is the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of the HIV epidemic and other communicable diseases and epidemics.

Mr Cole spoke at the Social Forum during a three-day visit to Geneva, where he met with the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, and engaged with UNAIDS staff, civil society activists and staff of other organizations engaged in the response to HIV.

As well as being UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador, Mr Cole is also chairman of amfAR and founder of the End AIDS Coalition.

As the sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women gets underway at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 13 to 24 March 2017, UNAIDS highlights the urgent need to respond to gender based violence and HIV.

Through her work as a journalist, Alejandra Oraa, CNN news anchor and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean, has reported on many stories about women and violence in the region. Shortly after thousands of people took to the streets in October 2016 to protest against widespread violence against women in the country, she undertook a joint UNAIDS and UN Women mission to Argentina to meet with not only survivors of violence but also the groups and organizations working with them.

“In the region we have made progress to respond to gender-based violence, but, unfortunately, there is still a long way to go. I hope that our voices and examples change a statistic that shames Latin America,” said Ms Oraa, who is also a spokesperson for UN Women’s Orange the World campaign to raise money to respond to violence against women.

Gender-based violence remains one of the key development challenges in the region. In 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries, between 17% and 53% of women interviewed reported having suffered physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner. In seven of the countries, more than one in four women reported such violence. Gender-based violence is not only a human rights violation, it also makes women and girls more vulnerable to HIV infection.

Ms Oraa’s first stop was in Merlo, in the greater Buenos Aires area, which has the highest HIV prevalence in Argentina. There, she learned about how UNAIDS and UN Women are supporting local projects that integrate programmes responding to violence against women, promote gender equality and expand access to HIV prevention services, all of which are inextricably linked.

Ms Oraa met with the local organization of people living with HIV, which helps to run a free and confidential HIV testing site during health fairs organized by the Municipality of Merlo in different parts of the town, making it easy for anyone to access an HIV test.

During the visit, Marcela Alsina, President of the network of people living with HIV (Red Bonaerense de Personas que Viven con VIH), together with other representatives of the organization, spoke to Ms Oraa about how stigma and discrimination are affecting the ability of women living with HIV to access employment and health services.

“Despite progress in the HIV response, there are still important gaps and inequalities that limit women living with HIV from having full access to employment, motherhood and comprehensive health services. When HIV becomes a priority, as it is happening in Merlo, we see that stigma and discrimination starts to decrease and the quality of life of people living with HIV starts to improve,” said Ms Alsina.

Ms Oraa visited the HIV testing centre of the Dr Pedro Chutro Maternal and Paediatric Hospital in Merlo. The centre, through a joint team with support from the Ministry of Social Development, civil society and the Women’s Commissioner Office, promotes the integration of HIV services with services to prevent violence against women. It also offers outreach activities and support groups for women and children affected by violence and HIV.

In Buenos Aires, Ms Oraa met with Fabiana Túñez, President of the National Council for Women, and Mabel Bianco, Director of FEIM, a nongovernmental organization supporting women’s and children’s rights. They talked to Ms Oraa about the importance of a joint and coordinated response to HIV and gender-based violence in Argentina to ensure that the country can end its AIDS epidemic by 2030.

Ms Oraa also spoke to internationally renowned Argentine singer Diego Torres, a spokesperson for the HeForShe campaign for gender equality, who talked passionately about the importance of involving men in stopping violence against women and gender equality in Argentina.

“We have to ensure that men and women enjoy equal opportunities in different aspects of life, for example in the labour market and in politics. This is what I believe in and stand for,” said Mr Torres. 

On 1 March, more than one million viewers joined an online discussion with Vera Brezhneva, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, to mark Zero Discrimination Day. 

The goal of the event was to raise awareness of stigma and discrimination. It brought together people of different backgrounds and ages living with HIV to share their personal stories and highlight the importance of zero discrimination in health-care settings.

The discussion was part of the UNAIDS Zero Discrimination Day Make Some Noise campaign, and was cohosted by UNAIDS and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization at United Nations House in Moscow, Russian Federation. The discussion was live streamed on Odnoklassniki, a leading Russian-language social media platform. 

UNAIDS estimates that 1.5 million people were living with HIV in eastern Europe and central Asia in 2015, up from 1 million in 2010.

Travelling to Gabon to attend the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN 2017), Gervais Yao Kouassi (Gervinho), UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Youth and China–Africa Collaboration, visited the UNAIDS office in Libreville, Gabon, to meet some 50 children and young people living with or affected by HIV.

Accompanied by young Gabonese ambassadors for HIV and by artist Charly Tchatch, the animator of the opening of CAN 2017 and an AIDS activist, the international football star talked to the children and young people and listened to their stories and concerns. The children and young people talked about problems with accepting their status and stigma and depression, but also about happiness, love and how they deal with their daily problems.

“I am very touched. It is the first time I hear such poignant testimonies”, said Gervinho. “As you know, I wanted to play with my team here, but I am injured. Your mental strength and joy of life encourages me to face life’s challenges.” Gervinho signed the Protect the Goal campaign ball to support UNAIDS’ vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths at CAN 2017.

Inge Tack, the UNAIDS Country Director, mentioned to Gervinho that despite AIDS budget cuts of 60% in Gabon since 2012, treatment rates have doubled and new HIV infections have been reduced by 30%, while paediatric treatment rates have tripled and coverage of prevention of mother-to-child transmission is at 78%. However, she also noted the need to improve the management of HIV treatment provision to achieve the 90–90–90 targets. “A radical shift in the organization and management of treatment delivery services is required to achieve the 90–90–90 targets in Gabon. Medicines need to be in the centre at all times and services reoriented to better serve patients’ needs,” said Ms Tack.

Gabon experiences persistent treatment stock-outs and poor care services result in no treatment adherence follow-up, no monitoring of drug resistance and no viral load measurement. Ms Tack stressed the need for a decentralized approach for the provision of antiretroviral therapy and an increase in community-led services.

It started in October with a single message written on one person’s hand: “know your status”. Nine weeks on and thousands of people from all over the world have demonstrated their support for UNAIDS’ “Hands up for #HIVprevention” campaign by sharing photos and videos expressing what HIV prevention means to them. Through a range of content, the campaign highlighted different aspects of HIV prevention week by week and showed how they relate to different groups of people, including adolescent girls and young women, key populations and people living with HIV. 

The campaign reached more than 2 million people on Facebook and 64 000 people have engaged through likes, shares and comments. On Twitter, the campaign reached almost 3 million people and UNAIDS campaign tweets were retweeted 12 000 times and liked 9500 times.

Messages that people wrote on their hands and held up for the world to see as part of the campaign include “Use condoms always”, “Provide support”, “End stigma”, “Invest”, “PrEP”, “No violence” and “Gender equality.” 

Prominent contributors included the First Lady of Benin, Claudine Talon, the First Lady of China, Peng Liyuan, the First Lady of Guinea-Bissau, Hadja Djene Kaba Condé, the First Lady of Panama, Lorena Castillo de Varella, and Tobeka Madiba Zuma, First Lady of South Africa.

UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador Michael Ballack also supported the campaign, with a message in support of zero discrimination. He was joined by James Chau, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for China, Vera Brezhneva, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Alejandra Oraa, UNAIDS Regional Goodwill Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean. The young television star Jenna Ortega provided a powerful and personal message about why HIV prevention was important to her. Princess Tessy of Luxembourg, UNAIDS Global Advocate for Young Women and Adolescent Girls, joined the campaign in the week highlighting women’s empowerment.        

UNAIDS partners such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS relief and mothers2mothers also joined in, offering powerful content and testimonies from people all over the world that showed how innovative programmes are reaching the people most in need of HIV prevention methods. 

The campaign followed the launch of the UNAIDS Prevention gap report earlier this year, which showed that an estimated 1.9 million adults have become infected with HIV every year for the past five years and that the number of new HIV infections is rising in some regions. The report shows that HIV prevention efforts must be reinvigorated if the world is to stay on the Fast-Track to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

The campaign culminated in a call for increased investment in HIV prevention strategies targeted at the people and places most in need of them. The commitment made in the 2016 Political Declaration on Ending AIDS is to ensure that financial resources for HIV prevention are adequate and constitute no less than a quarter of AIDS spending globally.

The World AIDS Day Facebook page remains open for new contributions. UNAIDS thanks everyone who has already participated.

Get the message out: AIDS is not over, but it can be. 

UNAIDS China has appointed the actor and humanitarian Huang Xiaoming as a UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador for China. The announcement was made on 28 November at an event at the UNAIDS office in Beijing, China.

“Huang Xiaoming is an inspiration for millions of people,” said Catherine Sozi, UNAIDS Country Director for China. “I am thrilled that he will leverage his platform as a gifted actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist to help end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. His efforts can re-energize HIV prevention and transform many lives in China and beyond.”

The nomination ceremony included a panel discussion with young people on HIV prevention. The football champion and UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador for China, Shao Jiayi, participated in the event and gave congratulatory remarks.

In his new role, Mr Huang will raise awareness on the importance of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, with a special emphasis on HIV prevention among young people. Immediately after his appointment, the star showed his support for the UNAIDS global “Hands up for #HIVprevention” campaign, which has been taking place in the lead-up to World AIDS Day on 1 December. Mr Huang posed for photographs with an HIV prevention message written on the palm of his hand. People around the world have been sharing similar photographs and messages through social media.

“I am honoured by this appointment as a UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for China,” said Mr Huang. “I am glad that I can play at a least a small part in helping to intensify efforts on HIV prevention. My hope is that young people understand the need to take proper measures to protect not only their own health but the health of the people they love.”

Chinese authorities say there were 654 000 people reported to be living with HIV in China by the end of September 2016. Young people are particularly vulnerable to HIV. Thirteen young people (age 15–24) are infected with HIV every hour in Asia and the Pacific.