The 35th meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 9 to 11 December.

During the opening session, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé addressed the Board giving an update of the progress made in the AIDS response as well as outlining the challenges ahead in achieving the Joint Programme’s Fast-Track 90-90-90 treatment targets by 2020.

Mr Sidibé said the response to HIV over the next five years would determine what happened over the next 15 years. “We face a historic opportunity to turn our dream of the end of the AIDS epidemic into reality if we act now,” he said.

The thematic segment of the meeting will take place on Thursday and will focus on people who inject drugs. Participants will examine policy and programmatic actions to halve HIV transmission among people who inject drugs.

The 35th meeting of the UNAIDS Board is being chaired by Australia, with Zimbabwe acting as Vice-Chair and El Salvador as rapporteur.