Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, delivered the keynote address to the opening plenary of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) summit on 13 October in Geneva, Switzerland. Speakers at the summit, entitled Controlling the HIV Epidemic with Antiretrovirals: Leveraging Progress, Seizing Opportunities, discussed the implications of new research confirming the benefits of early antiretroviral therapy for all people living with HIV in order to save lives, reduce coinfections such as tuberculosis and prevent HIV transmission.
Mr Sidibé highlighted the strategies, emerging opportunities and political processes needed to achieve the 90–90–90 targets by 2020, which call for 90% of people living with HIV knowing their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment having suppressed viral loads. These are central to the Fast-Track response to ending AIDS by 2030.
During the summit, the Director of the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, Johan Carlson, presented the findings of a scientific publication that announced that Sweden was the first country to declare that it had reached the 90–90–90 targets, in 2015. Mr Carlson highlighted the factors that contributed to the success, including free access to quality HIV education, testing, treatment, care and support, overcoming stigma and discrimination against people at higher risk of HIV, including gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers and migrants, the protection of human rights and programme monitoring and evaluation.
Mr Sidibé congratulated Sweden for its impressive progress on the 90–90–90 targets and noted that other high-income countries, as well as many low- and middle-income countries, including Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland and Thailand, are also on track to achieve them.
“Achieving 90–90–90 is about accelerating our efforts to keep people alive. If we are not saving lives, what is the point!”
Michel Sidibé UNAIDS Executive Director
“People living with HIV in Sweden report a high quality of life, but it is not just about treatment, but also about acceptance and integration. We must end stigma and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, people who inject drugs and others who are at risk of HIV.”
Johan Carlson Director, National Public Health Institute of Sweden
"We need to look at how we turn words into deeds"
Lennarth Hjelmaker Swedish Ambassador
“It is important we translate 90–90–90 to all populations at risk.”
Deborah Birx United States Global Aids Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy
“Seeing who is missing in the last 10% is also important. We must address the social and cultural differences that exist.”
Mark Dybul Executive Director, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
“This is not a game. This is life and death. 90–90–90 is absolutely realistic. The money needed from a macroeconomics level is equivalent to a rounding error.”
Jeffrey Sachs School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
“South Africa cannot increase from 3.5 million to 7 million on HIV treatment without addressing the issues of health systems and social justice.”
Mark Heywood Section 27, South Africa
