Fight against AIDS

published on December 2, 2015 by John Tozzi, in Arab News

The world committed to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 with goals adopted this year by the United Nations. But is that realistic, or even possible?
There are a lot of reasons for optimism on this World AIDS Day. The number of new infections has dropped 35 percent since 2000, according to the World Health Organization. HIV-linked deaths, which peaked in 2004, have dropped 40 percent since. And wider access to antiretroviral medicines is extending lives, suppressing the virus, and preventing its spread. The UN agreement isn’t talking about eradicating the virus entirely in 15 years. Citing mathematical models that show what’s possible, the goal is to stop widespread transmission and eliminate it as a public health threat.

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“People don’t see it as the threat it once was.” A significant halt to HIV transmission is unlikely to be sustained long-term without a vaccine or a cure, both medical advances not yet in reach, Warren says. There are financial barriers, too. Total global funding to fight HIV was about $21.7 billion this year. That would need to increase by almost 50 percent, to $31 billion annually by 2020, to be on track to meet the UN’s 2030 goal, says Jen Kates, vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “The funding picture is not very good right now,” she says, explaining that preventing new infections in the immediate term is crucial to making the 2030 goal. “More money needs to be provided now to save money later.” Still, with the science available, the world has the capacity to largely end the epidemic as a public health threat within a generation. The question is whether the practical, political, and financial barriers can be overcome. “I don’t want to minimize the fact that doing it is going to be challenging," says Julio Montaner, director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, who pioneered the idea of “treatment as prevention.”
“There is now consensus that it can be done, it should be done, it must be done,” he says.

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Julio Montaner

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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Fight against AIDS

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