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Experts and activists meet in Amsterdam from Monday for the International AIDS Conference, at a time when "a dangerous complacency" is set against a disease that is better treated but still
Ending AIDS: The goal still seems far away today. Even though the number of HIV infections is declining, some countries and regions are seeing resurgence of the virus.
For badociations, treatments that make it possible to live with HIV have paradoxically hindered prevention.
Figures "gave some people the guts to say that the end of AIDS is at hand," noted the researcher and former boss of UNAIDS Peter Piot, during a conference call with journalists.
"He there is absolutely no evidence to support this idea, "he says, cautioning against" dangerous complacency. "
He and the authors of a report on the epidemic for the International Society on Aids (IAS) and the medical journal The Lancet are, in his opinion, "extremely worried about the real risk that the world will be able to claim victory long before our fight against AIDS is over."
Next of celebrities like Prince Harry, actress Charlize Theron or singer Elton John, more than 15,000 delegates are expected in the Netherlands for this conference from Monday to Friday.
The conference is an opportunity for scientists to debate the impact of recent advances, or setbacks , in search of better and simpler anti-HIV treatments
After more than three decades of research, the virus remains incurable and vaccine-free. It has infected some 80 million people since the beginning of the epidemic in the early 1980s.
Today, 36.9 million people are living with HIV, hoping it will not worsen AIDS. Nearly three out of five are taking antiretroviral therapy to prevent it, according to UNAIDS
For the first time since the turn of the century, the annual death toll has dropped below one million in 2016 and 2017. [19659002] – "Strategic error" –
But in about 50 countries, infections are rising, for lack of prevention, or because of repressive legislation against populations at risk (homobaduals, drug addicts injecting drugs). 19659002] Prioritizing HIV treatment, rather than prevention, may have been "a strategic mistake," said IAS President Linda-Gail Bekker, who was interviewed by AFP.
"There is no epidemic that we have come out of treatment," she said, citing the Ebola virus or tuberculosis. "Clearly, a vaccine is the Grail, but we are not there yet."
She believes in the benefits of prevention: condoms, new needles for addicts, and preventive medicine.
money will be the sinews of the war.
After falling for two years, funding to low- and middle-income countries for the fight against AIDS increased in 2017 from 16% to $ 8.1 billion, according to figures from UNAIDS and the NGO Kaiser Family Foundation.
The trend is "not expected to last," according to them: the inflow comes from funds already budgeted that the United States had not not spent in previous years. And President Donald Trump has pledged to spend less money on it.
UNAIDS estimates that $ 7 billion a year in funding for AIDS is no longer a threat to global public health in 2030. To achieve this goal, the number of new cases of HIV and AIDS-related deaths will have to fall by 90% over 20 years.
"The job is not over," warns Robert Matiru, the director of operations for Unitaid, an international aid organization for drugs
Linda-Gail Bekker fears that the mobilization has "dispersed too quickly". "Either progress against this epidemic or retreat," she thinks.
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