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The International AIDS Conference begins Tuesday in a plenary session in Amsterdam, featuring celebrities such as Prince Harry, Charlize Theron or Elton John, under the sign of concern about a resurgence of the virus that affects Some 37 million people worldwide.
Thousands of delegates – researchers, activists, activists and people with the deadly virus – have gathered since Monday for this five-day conference, while a looser in the prevention, combined with a decrease in international funding, fears a rebound of the epidemic.
A resurgence of the HIV virus in some countries of the world, induced by strict laws on drug use and imputed notably to the sharing of syringes, focuses the concerns of the participants.
The 22nd International AIDS Conference attempts to capitalize on the celebrity of some militant stars
After 2014 Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst, it will be Prince Harry's turn of the day. South African origin, naturalized American, Charlize Theron, and British singer Elton John, as many celebrities who must promote fundraising to support the crying warnings of many experts.
Conchita Wurst, who announced in April to be HIV-positive and to take antiretroviral treatment, took advantage of the opening ceremony to insist that millions of people still do not have access to these vital medicines.
With a record of 36.9 million people currently living with HIV, experts warn that we must not let our guard down, despite the progress.
"In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the number of new infections has increased by 30% since 2010, "said International AIDS Society President Linda-Gail Bekker.
This is" the only region in the world where the HIV virus is growing rapidly, largely because of injecting drug use. "
– UN misses target –
" Despite all the remarkable advances that have been made, progress to end AIDS is still slow, " said Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director of the World Health Organization.
M. Ghebreyesus warned that the UN's 2020 targets on HIV and AIDS "will not be achieved" because there are too many places in the world where people do not have access to prevention services and of treatment they need. "
Primarily transmitted by badual or blood contact, the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, has infected nearly 80 million people since the early 1980s. More than 35 million between them died
"When I was born 20 years ago with the HIV virus, the landscape of the epidemic was very different from what it is today," said young woman Mercy Ngulube. badistant conference activist
"It's so wonderful to be able to live a life in which I do not have to wake up and wonder if we have tools to fight HIV."
"But it's also sad to live a life in which I know we have these tools and some people They do not have access to it, "she added.
According to UNAIDS, $ 7 billion a year is needed to stop this disease from becoming a threat to global public health in 2030.
– "No" to the anti-drug war –
A major cause of this resurgence is the repressive drug injection laws put in place in many countries, particularly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia – – including in Russia.
That is why a group of badociations present at the conference set up a campaign entitled: "Say no to the war on drugs", diverting a famous American drug slogan from the Reagan administration of the 80s.
The conference also paid tribute to six colleagues of the International AIDS Society who died when the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight, on the way to the 2014 conference in Melbourne, was shot down vol. [19659003"Theworldcontinuestodemandjusticeforwhathappenedonthisterribleday"saidPeterReissoneofthepresidentsoftheconference
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