Despite all the setbacks facing the global community in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the chance to end the epidemic by 2030 is still real. For this, countries need to unite. UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima spoke about this in her opening remarks at the High-Level Meeting on AIDS.
“AIDS is not over yet. This is one of the deadliest pandemics of our time. Since the beginning of the epidemic, 77.5 million people have been infected with HIV. We have lost almost 35 million people because of AIDS. Every minute death from AIDS is a state of emergency!” she emphasized. “We cannot end AIDS in one country or one continent, we can end AIDS everywhere.”
Winnie Byanyima acknowledged that HIV rates are not in line with the targets set and committed by the world community. Moreover, due to COVID-19, there is a resumption of the HIV-AIDS pandemic.
Programs that have provided significant progress will not allow countries to complete what they started in today’s realities. Winnie Byanyima believes that inequalities in power, status, rights and voice are the driving force behind the HIV pandemic. “Inequality kills. As the Global AIDS Strategy says, to end AIDS, we must end the inequalities that perpetuate it,” she said.
“The endless HIV pandemic is not our destiny,” said UNAIDS executive director. “But despite all the setbacks, we can end AIDS as a public health threat, as we promised, by 2030 – if we unite. This approach has another huge advantage: the same people-centered laws, policies and reliable health services needed to end AIDS will help the world overcome Covid-19, be prepared to fight future pandemics, and support inclusive economic growth and human rights for everyone. We will all do better.”
Winnie Byanyima provided and gave proves for three key changes that need to be taken together:
- We need to end inequalities in access to health technology by fostering cutting-edge science and making it available to everyone.
COVID-19 has shown that science moves at the speed of political will. We need to accelerate the advancement of AIDS science by investing in innovation in treatment, prevention, care and vaccines as global public goods, she said. “And we need to use science in such a way as not to increase inequality, but to reduce it. For example, let’s first get new long-acting antiretrovirals that will make HIV treatment and prevention easier for women of all their diversity and key populations, not years after people in rich countries have access to them. Let’s make sure that all drugs that can prevent death of people living with HIV are produced by several manufacturers at affordable prices, especially in the global South, where this disease is concentrated. We need funding, but we also need to reform failing intellectual property rules and support globally distributed manufacturing, so access to life-saving science no longer depends on your passport.” - End inequalities in access to basic services by ensuring health and education for all.
New HIV infections are rare in many communities; and living a long, fulfilling life with HIV is the norm. But within and between countries, a growing gap separates those who use prevention, treatment and care services and their rights are respected and those who are isolated,” she explained. “Today, we are setting for ourselves bold and ambitious goals to reach 95% of those in need of HIV treatment and prevention: to achieve this, we need to rethink HIV services by making them accessible and life-centered. We need to ensure that all girls complete secondary education and receive a full range of services and rights. We need to charge end-users for basic services and deliver those services through government tax-funded systems. We need to integrate the services provided by the community. We need to tackle tax evasion that hinders the mobilization of domestic resources for health and education. Most developing countries are facing a severe financial crisis, with revenue losses exceeding 20% in 2020 and health budgets at risk, especially in Africa. This is the time to increase revenues, and this requires ending tax evasion and tax competition that devastates the government coffers. We also need debt restructuring to overcome the shock caused by COVID-19 and create a fair mechanism for resolving the debt crisis. We need to reinvigorate, not step back from a commitment to aid 0.7% of the gross national income of all developed countries and ensure that most of the $ 650 billion in special drawing rights issued by the IMF go to low- and middle-income countries”. - There is a need to end inequalities in the enjoyment of rights, especially between people living with HIV and those who are vulnerable to or affected by HIV.
I applaud the commitment of Member States to reform laws and protect rights, ”said Winnie Byanyima. “ Evidence shows that when laws are strengthened to support gender equality and the rights of key populations and to counter stigma, countries are doing much better with treatment and prevention programs, benefiting everyone. They rolled back HIV. We need to keep moving forward in our common path, avoiding harmful, punitive, outdated, often colonial laws and all forms of discrimination. This moment requires us to work together in different sectors and in different countries. The false promises of populism do not match biology: as COVID-19 reminds us, we are not just interconnected, we are inseparable.”
In her opening remarks, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima also paid tribute to civil society groups around the world whose fight against inequality has given impetus to action. Communities, women’s groups, and grassroots movements were constantly pushing officials, and sometimes this pushing was “uncomfortable”. But the struggle and pushing cannot be stopped, Winnie Byanima is convinced because the pressure on the authorities is the key to ending inequality and AIDS.
“We cannot be neutral on inequality. To get back on the path to ending AIDS, we must consciously confront them. The only alternative is a vicious cycle of injustice, disease and emergencies. The most unrealistic thing we could do now is to imagine that we can overcome our crises with minor adjustments or manipulations. It is up to us to decide whether we will be remembered as promise breakers or promise keepers, losers or winners, people who ended AIDS, or just people who could end AIDS. Epidemics exacerbate our worst qualities — inequality, injustice and fear; but also our best qualities are resourcefulness, tenacity and courage. I am sure that together we will win,” she concluded.
From 8 to 10 June 2021, the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS is being held in New York and online. The meeting will discuss the results of activities to reduce the negative consequences of HIV since the previous similar event, which took place 5 years ago. In addition, a new political declaration is expected to be adopted towards further work in this area.