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A resurgence of the HIV virus in some countries around the world, prompted by strict laws on drug use, including syringe sharing, worries the members of the international AIDS conference that opened on Monday. Amsterdam.
Thousands of delegates – researchers, activists, activists and people with the deadly virus – gathered for a five-day conference, while a relaxation in prevention, combined with a decline in international funding, fears rebound of epidemic.
The 22nd International AIDS Conference seeks to raise awareness of this issue with celebrities such as Prince Harry, actress Charlize Theron and singer Elton John blunt warnings from many experts.
"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 in the Dutch capital.
"This conference, we hope, will also highlight this region, the only one in the world where the HIV virus is growing rapidly, in Partly because of injecting drug use. "
Experts have recently warned that new HIV infections, although declining overall, are on the rise in about 50 countries.
The focus has been on treatment to eradicate HIV, diverting attention from basic prevention programs, such as condom distribution, the experts said. This has resulted in an even easier spread of the virus among vulnerable groups.
– Too slow –
"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 the treatment they need. "
The HIV virus, which causes AIDS, has infected nearly 80 million people since the early 1980s. More than 35 million of them have died there. [19659002"WhenIwasborn20yearsagowiththeHIVvirusthelandscapeoftheepidemicwasverydifferentthanitistoday"saidMercyNgulubeayoungactivistattendingtheconference[19659002] "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 of life in which I know we have these tools and that some people do not have access to them, "she added.
Last week, a UNAIDS report warned that a long and difficult road is ahead for the future.
New infections, although declining, were still at 1.8 million last year, far behind the 500,000 maximum expected by 2020 by the UN's AIDS body.
– "No" to the war on drugs –
Despite this difference, reports show that funding has "dropped" significantly and is likely to continue to decline.
According to UNAIDS, it is missing 7 billions of dollars a year so that this disease is no longer a threat to global public health in 2030.
A major cause of this resurgence is the repressive drug injection legislation put in place in many countries, particularly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia – including Russia.
This exposes consumers at the margins of society to the risk of infection from sharing non-sterile syringes, which then transmit the virus to their patients. badual partners.
"Nearly half – more than 45 percent – of new HIV infections worldwide are found among the most affected and hard-to-reach groups, obviously includes people who use drugs, "said Chris Beyrer, director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the American Johns Hopkins University.
" A liberal drug policy can really play an important role in controlling the HIV epidemic, "insisted the former president of the International Society on AIDS.
That's 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 1980s.
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