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Then Vice President Cyril Ramaphosa (right) and UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe (right) hosted protesters at the Durban International Conference Center in Durban, South Africa. July 18, 2016. EPA / KEVIN SUTHERLAND
The Treatment Action Campaign and SECTION27 called on Cyril Ramaphosa to make a strong statement on World AIDS Day, calling on leaders at the 2018 G20 meeting to ensure that funding for HIV prevention and treatment HIV increases.
President Ramaphosa,
Greetings. Thank you for your tireless efforts to try to eliminate the corruption and capture of the state. We hope that these efforts will soon translate into a firm commitment to improving the quality of life of millions of people, including their access to lifesaving drugs and quality health.
As you know, we are fast approaching World AIDS Day, December 1, 2018. This year, World AIDS Day is particularly important as it will take place during your meeting with world leaders at the G20 in Argentina and at the World AIDS Day. beginning of the sixth replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – organized by the French government.
World AIDS Day 2018 should remind us all that the global AIDS crisis is far from over. In 2017, 1.8 million people became infected with HIV while prevention tools remain out of reach and violence, marginalization and criminalization of women, girls and key populations continue to place people at risk. HIV infection.
Today, 40% of people living with HIV still can not access life-saving antiretroviral therapy. Millions of additional people face permanent compliance and mortality issues, whether due to treatment fatigue, limited opportunities for counseling or effective support and a lack of support. poor access to mental health services. We also face a large and deadly co-epidemic of tuberculosis, a limited supply of HIV services due to the shortage of health workers and many other health system problems. The reality is that the obstacles before us must be faced.
At the beginning of the global AIDS response, we fought for governments around the world to take responsibility for doing everything necessary to ensure that HIV treatment is delivered to those who need it. As governments now recognize their role, we are far from the real victory that will come when treatment and prevention become available to all, and our health systems provide the services essential to the survival of the population. We can not sit and relax while people on the ground are dying.
Today, almost everyone agrees that prevention, treatment and care must be provided to all who need it. The adoption at world level of the objectives of the accelerated procedure "90-90-90" testifies to this consensus. We have reached a stage of the AIDS response where the issue is not so much what to do, but to ensure that evidence-based and quality-based programs, based on the communities of those affected, are actually implemented.
In this context, we are alarmed by the fact that funding provided by donor governments for these HIV programs has declined in recent years. In almost all low- and middle-income countries, funding gaps undermine the HIV response, and treatment, prevention and care services are rationed. Last year, a study by Kaiser Family Foundation & UNAIDS showed that donor government funding for the global HIV response fell by 7% in 2016 and was at its lowest level since 2010.
This should be a rude awakening for you as president of one of the most affected countries in the world. This should be a reminder for anyone who cares about saving lives and ending the global HIV epidemic. As we are about to succeed and 60% of people living with HIV receive treatment, we have another reminder: whether or not the policy allows for the AIDS pandemic.
Countries around the world have agreed on a global strategy. But we need money to carry it out. We need an ambitious acceleration of funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and ensure that it At least 18 billion dollars promised in 2019.
That's why we're asking you personally to make a statement on World AIDS Day, calling on leaders at the 2018 G20 meeting to make sure that funding increases and that international solidarity is needed to provide quality treatment and prevention services around the world.
We hope you will do it. Millions of lives depend on it. DM
This is an abridged version of the letter. Anele Yawa is General Secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign and Mark Heywood is Executive Director of SECTION27.
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