WORLD AIDS DAY MESSAGES

Dec 01, 2018 News

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UN SECRETARY-GENERAL

Thirty years after the first World AIDS Day, the response to HIV stands at a crossroads. Which way we turn may

define the course of the epidemic—whether we will end AIDS by 2030, or whether future generations will carry on bearing the burden of this devastating disease.
More than 77 million people have become infected with HIV, and more than 35 million have died of an AIDS-related illness. Huge progress has been made in diagnosis and treatment, and prevention efforts have avoided millions of new infections.
Yet the pace of progress is not matching global ambition. New HIV infections are not falling rapidly enough. Some regions are lagging behind, and financial resources are insufficient. Stigma and discrimination are still holding people back, especially key populations— including gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgenders, people who inject drugs, prisoners and migrants—and young women and adolescent girls. Moreover, one in four people living with HIV do not know that they have the virus, impeding them from making informed decisions on prevention, treatment and other care and support services.
There is still time — to scale-up testing for HIV; to enable more people to access treatment; to increase resources needed to prevent new infections; and to end the stigma. At this critical juncture, we need to take the right turn now.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)

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 that 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.

PAN CARIBBEAN PARTNERSHIP AGAINST HIV/AIDS (PANCAP)

This year’s World AIDS Day theme “Know your status” encourages us to be tested to know whether we are HIV

negative or positive. This theme is very relevant as the world has committed to Fast Track actions towards achieving the 90-90-90 treatment targets by the year 2020.
The UNAIDS 2018 Global AIDS Monitoring (GAM) report informs us that there are an estimated 310,000 adults and children living with HIV in the Caribbean, of which nearly 55,000 are unaware that they have HIV.
While many people experience anxieties when contemplating being tested, it is good to know that the majority of these will test HIV negative. What is important is those who know that they are HIV negative have an incentive to keep themselves free from HIV by adopting changes to their lives that can reduce their risk and vulnerability to HIV. The few who test positive for HIV can have immediate access to life-saving antiretroviral drugs that would enable them to enjoy a good quality life and live much longer.
The 2018 UNAIDS GAM report also helps us to understand that we still need to place 74,400 persons who are living with HIV on treatment and 103,000 are yet to achieve viral suppression, that is, having very low levels of virus in the body, even though the virus is still present.
Science and evidence show that AIDS can be defeated once we get 90 percent of people to know their HIV status, of those who are HIV positive 90 percent receive anti-retroviral drugs and are retained in care, and 90 percent of those on treatment achieve viral suppression.
Once this happens, we are well on the way to achieving the end of AIDS, by 2030.
So what is stopping us from achieving these 90-90-90 targets?
The biggest challenges we face are persistent judgment and unfair treatment of people living with HIV and persons belonging to key population groups such as gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender persons, sex workers, persons who use drugs, migrants and other mobile populations, and persons with disabilities.
We judge persons who are different from us and we often times treat them differently. We do so because we do not take the time to understand. This year’s theme must, therefore, serve as a catalyst for increased strategic advocacy using the PANCAP Regional Advocacy Strategy 2017 and national advocacy plans for increasing political will to remove the policies and legislative barriers that obstruct people from coming forward to know their HIV status. The fear is real as people are concerned that they will be treated differently if they test positive.
We must bring into the spotlight the critical need for laboratory improvements and increased coverage in our region. We need more laboratory facilities including those led by the communities themselves to know our status. We need laboratories to confirm community-led HIV screening tests. We need laboratories and point-of-care diagnostic systems to monitor our viral loads and health care providers who are trained to provide clinical management for HIV-related illnesses.
We cannot get people tested if we do not have test kits, the right diagnostic equipment, and the right human resources. When we talk about placing 90 percent of people who are HIV positive on treatment and retaining them on treatment, we must also ensure that we do not have stock-outs of key drugs. How can we be taken seriously when we encourage people to be tested and then fail to provide uninterrupted treatment?
How can we fail to respond to people living with HIV when sometimes drugs are not available and people become anxious because their health care provider had stressed the importance of adherence to treatment and the impact of non-adherence on their health, including the potential for drug resistance?
If we are serious about getting people to know their status, we must move beyond the rhetoric to decisive actions to demonstrate that we understand the full implication of what it means to move someone who tests HIV positive to sustained viral suppression.
We must guarantee good quality laboratory testing and laboratory services, uninterrupted treatment and monitoring within our health care system. And we must begin to tackle the reform of the justice system to enable persons who suffer discrimination to obtain redress in a timely manner. This calls for the engagement and involvement of our ministries of justice and attorneys general among others.
I call upon our governments and all who can make this happen to take the necessary actions to create an enabling environment in which people who want to know their status can come forward with the knowledge that they will not be treated differently, and that if they test positive, they will be provided with the treatment, care and support the need to enjoy good quality lives and achieve viral suppression. Only then can we get them to know their status and begin the journey towards ending AIDS as a public health threat in the Caribbean.

 

PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANISATION/WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (PAHO/WHO)

The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) is calling on people to get tested as an important step towards halting the spread of HIV and ending AIDS. “Know your status” is the campaign slogan for this year’s World AIDS Day, which is being celebrated today.
HIV testing provides people with a unique opportunity to discover their HIV status and enables those diagnosed with HIV to rapidly initiate lifesaving treatment. It also serves as a gateway for those at higher risk of acquiring the virus to access the recommended package of prevention services in order to remain negative.
Over 2.1 million people live with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1.6 million of whom know their status. Knowledge of HIV status, combined with increased access to antiretroviral treatment in the Region has led to a 12% drop in AIDS-related deaths in Latin America and a 23% drop in the Caribbean from 2010 to 2017.
Despite this progress, however, in Latin America, the rate of new HIV infections remains unchanged at around 100,000 per year – a reduction of just 1% since 2010. Progress in the Caribbean has been much faster, with an 18% reduction in new infections since 2010. Even so, throughout the Region, key population groups most at risk of contracting HIV continue to miss out on vital prevention and follow-up services.
“The Region of the Americas has made important progress in the fight against AIDS and part of this is down to the fact that over three-quarters of people living with HIV have been tested and almost 80% of them are now in treatment,” said Dr. Marcos Espinal, Director of the PAHO/WHO Department of Communicable Diseases and Environmental Determinants of Health.
“World AIDS Day reminds us that despite these gains, 1 in 4 people with HIV in the Region still don’t know they have it, have not begun treatment and are therefore at greater risk of dying prematurely and infecting others.”
The majority of new infections in the Region occur in gay men and other men who have sex with men, which represent 41% of new cases in Latin America and 23% in the Caribbean. Sex workers and their clients, transgender women and people who inject themselves with drugs are also disproportionately affected by HIV.
Currently, one third of people with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean only get diagnosed after becoming ill and symptomatic, when their immunity has already been seriously compromised and after exposing their sexual partners to possible transmission of HIV. Testing is therefore a vital element in preventing further spread of the virus and ensuring that those with HIV have a better quality of life.
“Reducing new HIV infections is key to accelerating the response to HIV/AIDS in the Americas,” said Dr. Espinal. “In order to achieve this, we must address the barriers, such as stigma and discrimination, that prevent key populations from accessing testing and treatment services and fully exercising their right to health.”
HIV PREVENTION IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
In order to step up efforts towards ending AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030, PAHO/WHO, along with UNAIDS, recommends the implementation of combination HIV prevention, which is a person-centered approach that combines biomedical and behavioral interventions with measures that foster an enabling environment to overcome access barriers to health care.
This starts with the provision of testing services, particularly for those at-risk of HIV infection. PAHO/WHO recommends that health systems expand options for HIV testing to include HIV self-tests and lay provider tests, which can be done at home, as well as in places other than health centres, with flexible hours and same-day results. PAHO/WHO also recommends that the age at which young people can take an HIV test without the consent of a parent or guardian be reduced in lines with the recommendations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is particularly important given that approximately one third of new HIV infections occur among young people aged 15 to 24 years old.
In addition to the expansion of testing services, PAHO advocates for the provision of both post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for those who may have been exposed to HIV, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to those at substantial risk of infection as part of the comprehensive package of HIV prevention services.
30 YEARS OF AIDS PREVENTION
This year is the 30-year anniversary of World AIDS DAY, first initiated by WHO in 1988. World AIDS Day is an opportunity to celebrate the success of this pioneering global health campaign, and initiatives in place all over the world to tackle the AIDS epidemic. However, it is also an important reminder that despite progress made, the world cannot become complacent in its response to HIV.

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