Message from UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé

GENEVA, 18 June 2013—Ten years ago, President George W. Bush announced the creation of The Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in his State of the Union Address. Its aim was to provide antiretroviral treatment to 2 million people, prevent 7 million new HIV infections and provide care and support to 10 million people by 2010.

On this 10th anniversary of PEPFAR we are able to celebrate its extraordinary success. Not only did it achieve its initial goals but it has surpassed them by a wide margin. By 2012 PEPFAR was supporting treatment for more than 5 million people and providing care and support to 15 million, including nearly 5 million children.  

PEPFAR has embodied the spirit of shared responsibility and global solidarity through its commitment to helping the most vulnerable in society.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has worked closely with PEPFAR since its inception collaborating on expanding access to treatment, stopping new HIV infections in children through the Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive and ensuring a long term, sustainable response to HIV.    

This shared responsibility has been replicated around the world with donor and partner nations making smart investments to save lives. This collective global effort, by government, donors, private foundations, and multilateral institutions such as UNITAID and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has transformed the global AIDS response. Ensuring treatment for more than 9 million people around the world, PEPFAR has also contributed to a 20% decline in AIDS-related deaths and a 25% fall in new HIV infections since the peak of the epidemic.

PEPFAR has been among the leaders setting a strong example for the world in which we all have a role to play. Today, the end of AIDS is coming into sight. Now we must continue to work together to ensure that PEPFAR’s second decade sees an AIDS-free generation.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiD3TFgbUTE

GENEVA, 12 June 2013—The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) welcomes new findings announced today that an antiretroviral medicine, taken daily as a prophylaxis, can reduce the risk of HIV infection by 49% for HIV-negative men and women who inject drugs. 

From 2005-2013 the study, conducted by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, the United States Centers for Disease Control and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, enrolled 2 413 men and women (80% men and 20% women) who inject drugs in Bangkok, Thailand. HIV-negative volunteers who took a daily dose of the antiretroviral medicine tenofovir as oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) were 49% less likely to become infected with HIV than the volunteers who took the placebo.

“Piece by piece scientific advances are paving the way to the end of the AIDS epidemic,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “The full potential of antiretroviral therapy in keeping people alive and well and in preventing new HIV infections is becoming apparent. The results of this study are important and if used effectively in HIV programming could have a significant impact in protecting people who inject drugs from becoming infected with HIV.”

UNAIDS underlines that no single intervention is completely protective in preventing HIV transmission, which is why UNAIDS advocates strongly for combination prevention. Successful combination harm reduction services, including provision of clean needles and syringes, opioid substitution therapy, accessible health care services together with the removal of punitive laws and collaboration with police and law enforcement strategies have proved effective in preventing new HIV infections among people who inject drugs.

The announcement today complements results from several PrEP trials released over the past few years. In 2010, the iPrEx study found that an antiretroviral drug combination, taken daily as a prophylaxis, in conjunction with use of condoms, reduced the risk of HIV infection by an average of 44% for HIV-negative men and transgender women who have sex with men. In 2011, the Partners PrEP study found that an antiretroviral tablet taken daily by people who are HIV-negative could reduce their risk of acquiring HIV by up to 73%, and the TDF2 trial in Botswana found a that once-daily antiretroviral tablet reduced the risk of acquiring HIV by around 63% in HIV-negative heterosexual men and women.  Two other studies (Fem-PrEP and VOICE) showed no protective effect­­—although this could largely be explained by low levels of adherence to the trial products.

To the millions who have come together with compassion and determination on this World AIDS Day, we say: “Your blood, sweat and tears are changing the world.” We have moved from despair to hope. Far fewer people are dying from AIDS. 25 countries have reduced new infections by more than 50%. I want these results in every country.

The pace of progress is quickening. It is unprecedented—what used to take a decade is now being achieved in just 24 months. Now that we know rapid and massive scale up of HIV programmes is possible, we need to do more. Friends, we only have a thousand days left before the deadline of the 2015 global AIDS targets.

So today, on World AIDS Day, let us renew our commitment to getting to zero. Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths.

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director

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World AIDS Day 2012

• The UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report 2012 was launched on 20 November 2012 in multiple locations around the world
• Ahead of World AIDS Day CEOs call to end HIV travel restrictions (28 November 2012)
• UNAIDS encourages Haiti to eliminate HIV in children (1 December 2012)
• UNAIDS to host Google+ Hangout ahead of World AIDS Day 2012 (23 November 2012)
• UNAIDS and the Stop TB Partnership join forces to stop HIV/TB deaths (27 November 2012)
• New generation of fashion designers supports UNAIDS in “Getting to Zero” (9 November 2012)
• UNAIDS and Standard Bank Group partner to bring HIV awareness to the workplace (29 November 2012)
• Peru launches campaign to increase HIV testing among men (29 November 2012)
• UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador Aishwarya Rai Bachchan supporting pregnant women living with HIV on World AIDS Day (29 November 2012)
• Haiti’s HIV successes and challenges acknowledged on World AIDS Day (2 December 2012)
• UNAIDS and Italian football team up against AIDS (29 November 2012)

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Reports

  

World AIDS Day report: Results, by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), shows that unprecedented acceleration in the AIDS response is producing results for people. The report shows that a more than 50% reduction in the rate of new HIV infections has been achieved across 25 low- and middle-income countries––more than half in Africa, the region most affected by HIV.

The following slides are a compilation of the epidemiology data and graphics contained in the 2012 Global Report: Epidemiology slides -  en | fr | es | ru

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UNAIDS report press conference

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UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

It is with profound sadness that UNAIDS mourns the death of staff member Mr Sam Were who recently passed away in Kampala, Uganda. Sam lived openly with HIV and served as a role model by declaring his HIV-positive status at a time when few people living with HIV were willing to disclose.

UNAIDS today acknowledges the life and legacy of Dr Jonathan Mann, a formative force in the fields of HIV, health and human rights. Dr Mann and his wife, AIDS researcher Mary-Lou Clements-Mann were on their way to Geneva when their plane crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada on 2 September 1998.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) expresses deep concern over the safety of three individuals who were arrested at the HIV/AIDS Implementers Meeting held in Kampala, Uganda, 3-8 June 2008, and who are currently involved in ongoing court proceedings on charges of trespass.

Washington DC, 30 July 2008: This signing is a historic event. The world is beginning to

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS welcomes U.S. Senate approval of the “Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.” With this key vote, the U.S. government has taken another major step in keeping its commitment to the global AIDS response.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) welcomes the decision reached by the Group of Eight (G8) leaders at the Summit in Hokkaido, Japan to honour in full their commitments to continue working towards the goal of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010.

The UN, Beijing Youth League, China Red Cross and MSI join forces with people living with HIV to train Olympic volunteers on HIV prevention and anti-discrimination