UNAIDS - 19 conferences on...

The XIX World Aids Conference has opened in Washington DC with 20,000 delegates rubbing shoulders with the likes of Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Margaret Chan and others who grace the world stage in the fight against AIDS calling for a joint effort under the theme Turing the Tide Together.

The discussions at this event will focus on zero discrimination, zero new infections and zero AIDS-related deaths in the drive towards the Millennium Development Goal of halving infections by 2015, expanding treatment to 15 million people and ensuring that no child is born with HIV.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé calls the conference "a historic milestone on our journey to end this epidemic".  As usual at these Conferences (this one began on July 22), there is a mixture of good news and alerts. The good news was summarised by Mr. Idibé as follows:

"For the first time, we have more people on treatment than people who need treatment. We have broken the trajectory on new infections, with a worldwide decline of 20 per cent since 2001, and mortality is also declining. Yet, in these times of unprecedented political, financial, economic and social crisis, I am scared for the future of global solidarity," he added. "From many places in the developed world I am hearing, 'We cannot afford to keep our promises. We have our own problems at home.' My response is simple: We know how to get to zero. All that can stop us now is indecision and lack of courage."

Recent scientific advances have been made towards finding a cure for HIV or preventing it from becoming full-blown AIDS. The scientific community will be discussing the themes Treatment 2.0, Strategic use of ARVs and Treatment for Prevention.

Treatment 2.0 consists of 5 pillars: (**)

- Pillar 1 - Creating a better pill and diagnostics

- Pillar 2 - Treatment as prevention

- Pillar 3 - Stop cost being an obstacle

- Pillar 4 - Improve uptake of HIV testing and linkage to care

- Pillar 5 - Strengthen community mobilization

(**) UN AIDS

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru