Funding continues to impact HIV/AIDS fight in Region – regional meeting hears

Nov 08, 2018 News

---

The HIV/AIDS response in the Region is continuing to experience a funding crisis. This notion was recently amplified by Dr. James Guwani, who shared that between 2006 and 2017 international resources in the region decreased by 16 percent.
Dr. Guwani is the Team Leader and Senior Advisor of the Fast Track, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS] for the Caribbean Sub Regional office.
In 2017, just under half of the money needed to finance the achievement of the Fast Track programme in the region was not even available, Dr. Guwani told the gathering at the recently concluded regional meeting on ending AIDS in Kingston, Jamaica.
The meeting, which was made possible through the collaboration of the Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS [PANCAP] and the Pan American Health Organization [PAHO], saw the attendance of key health officials and other stakeholders involved in the HIV/AIDS fight.
Moreover, the meeting was one that saw Dr. Guwani advocating that even as stakeholders negotiate with international partners, a message must be sent to Governments within the Region that there must be full funding for the AIDS response.
Even as he considered that the regional meeting on Ending AIDS falls at the halfway point to 2020, he added, “That’s a deadline the global community agreed upon for meeting targets that will set us on a course to end the AIDS epidemic.”
Dr. Guwani not only commended PANCAP Director, Dereck Springer, but PAHO, too, for their leadership in sharing the vision of a region without AIDS. He noted that their commitment to exploring the scientific as well as social dimensions of the challenge is invaluable, particularly now that the 2020 Fast-Track target is approaching.
The Fast-Track target is one that speaks to the reduction of new HIV infections to fewer than 500,000 people globally by 2020.
Through the 2016 Political Declaration on ending AIDS, the community of nations agreed to adopt a Fast-Track strategy that involves increasing prevention, testing, and treatment services while working to eliminate stigma and discrimination.
Central to this goal, Dr. Guwani said are the 90-90-90 Treatment Targets. This proposes that by 2020 at least 90 percent of people living with HIV infection should be diagnosed, at least 90 percent of HIV infected patients should be on treatment and at least 90 percent of those on treatment should achieve virological suppression.
It is believed that by achieving the target by 2020 it will allow for a 90 percent reduction in AIDS-related mortality and HIV incidence by 2030 and help to eliminate this disease as a public health threat.
But according to Dr. Guwani, “Here in the Caribbean, the AIDS response is at a precarious point.” He added, “There has been partial success in saving lives and stopping new HIV infections, but the pace of progress is not matching global ambition.
According to new data published earlier this year in the UNAIDS 2018 Global AIDS Update, there were an estimated 310,000 People Living with HIV [PLHIV] in the Caribbean at the end of 2017.”
He informed that 73 percent of PLHIV in the region were aware of their status while 79 percent of diagnosed people were on treatment. Dr. Guwani expressed his concern that the region lags behind the world in terms of viral suppression rates.
“Our 70 percent in 2017 compares to a global average of 81 percent,” he emphasized.
He further stated that to reach the targets that will set the Caribbean on track to end AIDS, the Region must close the gaps in testing and treatment. “The gap to achieving the testing target – 90 percent of all people living with HIV diagnosed – was 54, 800 people in 2017,” stated Dr. Guwani. He disclosed too that “The gap to achieving the second target – 90 percent of diagnosed people on treatment – was 74,700 people. And the gap to achieving the third target – 90 percent of people on treatment virally suppressed – was 103,000 people”.
Dr. Guwani urged that the Region increase its use of proven strategies such as community-led services for early diagnosis, enrolment in treatment, retention in care and treatment adherence.
He advocated that combination prevention must be a priority, with more countries “making use of the full arsenal at our disposal to reduce new infections including biomedical, behavioral and structural interventions.”
“Make no mistake: stigma and discrimination and restrictive laws and policies continue to be the biggest obstacle to ending AIDS in the Caribbean, particularly for young people and members of key population communities.”
He therefore amplified that the regional meeting allowed for “a critical opportunity for further collaboration between governments, civil society and the faith community towards building an enabling environment.”

---

---