Submit manuscript...
Journal of
eISSN: 2373-6453

Human Virology & Retrovirology

Correspondence:

Received: January 01, 1970 | Published: ,

Citation: DOI:

Download PDF

Editorial

It was acknowledged that ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030 would only be possible if fast-tract targets are met by 2020 as Member States start implementation the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The targets and commitments, adopted in the Political Declaration on Ending AIDS: on the Fast-Track to Accelerate the Fight against HIV and to End the AIDS Epidemic by 2030, will guide the world in addressing the critical relationships between health, poverty, conflict, injustice, inequality, and development. The 2016 Political Declaration calls on the world to achieve the following goals in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development : 1.) Reduce new HIV infections to fewer than 500,000 globally by 2020, 2.) Reduce AIDS-related deaths to fewer than 500,000 globally by 2020, and 3.) Eliminate HIV-related stigma and discrimination by 2020. At the end of 2015, the number of people on HIV treatment reached 17 million (target: 15 million people). The leaders pledged to ensure that 90 % of people living with HIV know their status, 90 % of people who know their status are receiving treatment, and 90 % of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads. Member States further committed to urgently address low treatment coverage rates among children living with HIV by: 1.) Implement the 90-90-90 treatment target to ensure that 30 million people living with HIV access treatment by 2020, 2.) Ensure that 1.6 million children living with HIV access HIV treatment by 2018. HIV prevention targets encourage countries to promote access to tailored comprehensive HIV prevention services for all adolescent girls and women, sex workers, men who have sex with men, migrants, people who inject drugs, transgender people, and prisoners. Special efforts will be made to intensify outreach in locations of high HIV transmission with services for populations worldwide at higher risk of infection. As the epidemic is distinctive in each country and region, thus, encouraging regional action and accountability were done by setting regional targets on prevention and treatment for children, young people, and adults to: 3.) Reach all adolescent girls, women, and key populations with comprehensive HIV prevention services, including harm reduction by 2020, 4.) Reach 3 million people at higher risk of HIV infection with pre-exposure prophylaxis by 2020, 5.) Reach 25 million young men in high HIV incidence areas with voluntarily medical male circumcision and make 20 billion condoms available in low- and middle-income countries by 2020. New Political Declaration with an emphasis on ensuring that mothers have access to immediate and life-long antiretroviral therapy by: 6.) Eliminating new HIV infections among children by reducing new infections by 95 % in every region by 2020, 7.) Reducing to below 100,000 per year the number of adolescent girls and young women aged 15-24 years old newly infected with HIV worldwide by 2020, 8.) Eliminating gender inequalities and gender-based abuse and violence, 9.) Ending all forms of violence and discrimination against girls and women, 10.) Encouraging and supporting the leadership of young people and scale up comprehensive education on sexual and reproductive health and protect their human rights. The Political Declaration further recognizes that progress in protecting and promoting the human rights of people living with, at risk of, and affected by HIV by: 11.) Reviewing and reforming laws that reinforce stigma and discrimination and restrict access to services, travel restrictions, mandatory testing and punitive laws related to HIV non-disclosure, exposure, and transmission by 2020, 12.) Eliminating barriers, including stigma and discrimination, in healthcare settings by 2020, 13.) Strengthening national social and child protection systems to ensure that 75 % of people living with, at risk of, and affected by HIV benefit from HIV-sensitive social protection by 2020. Member States emphasized the continued importance of an integrated approach to a range of health issues, including tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, human papillomavirus, cervical cancer, emerging and re-emerging diseases, and noncommunicable diseases by: 14.) Reducing tuberculosis-related AIDS deaths by 75 % by 2020, 15.) Reaching 90 % of all people who need tuberculosis treatment, including 90 % of populations at higher risk, and achieve at least 90 % treatment success by 2020, 16.) Reducing by 30 % new cases of chronic viral hepatitis B and C by 2020, 17.) Treating 5 million people with hepatitis B and treating 3 million people with chronic hepatitis C by 2020. Member States encouraged the enhanced strategic engagement of private sector to support countries with investments and service delivery for strengthening supply chains, workplace initiatives, and social marketing of health commodities and behavior change by: 18.) Increasing and front-loading investments to close the resource gap by investing at least US $26 billion a year in the AIDS response by 2020, 19.) Investing at least a quarter for AIDS spending on HIV prevention and investing at least 6 % of all global AIDS resources for social enablers, including advocacy, community and political mobilization, community monitoring, outreach programs, and public communication by 2020, and ensuring that at least 30 % of all service delivery by 2030 is community-led, and 20.) Addressing regulations, policies and practices that prevent access to safe, affordable and efficacious generic drugs, diagnostics and health-related technologies, including ensuring the full use of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) flexibilities, and strengthening regional and local capacity to develop, manufacture and deliver quality-assured affordable health products. Member States made a number of commitments to enhance monitoring and accountability, urging the more active involvement of people living with, affected by and at risk of HIV. The Political Declaration also call on Member States to ensure that the United Nations and UNAIDS is fit to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For moving forward, AIDS stakeholders are encouraged to intensify pressure to address the most entrenched obstacles to progress and ensure that the Political Declaration can fulfill its role as an instrument for social justice and dignity.

Acknowledgements

None

Conflict of interest

None

Creative Commons Attribution License

© . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.