Mr. Macron, defeating AIDS in a generation depends on you



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Ladies and Gentlemen, Heads of State and Government,

In more than 300 days, you will meet in Lyon to mobilize resources for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. These pandemics are still responsible for 2.6 million deaths per year, 7300 per day, 5 per minute! It is urgent to take action.

This human disaster, you can avoid it. For a few dollars a month, adapted diagnostic tools, effective treatments can save lives and stop transmissions. But they remain insufficiently accessible. More than one million HIV-positive children are still waiting for pediatric treatment and are at risk of dying from AIDS. More than 3 million people are not diagnosed with TB and therefore can not be treated.

These three pandemics tragically affect the entire world, especially Africa. They strike first and foremost the poorest, most vulnerable and most discriminated populations. Adolescents and young women, gay and bibadual men, trans people, drug users, inmates and bad workers are still disproportionately affected by these pandemics. AIDS alone remains the leading cause of death for women aged 15-49 worldwide.

This situation is not inevitable, on the contrary. Solutions to avoid new infections and save lives exist: access everywhere to prevention (comprehensive baduality education, condoms, PrEP), screening and treatment everywhere. And fight against discrimination and gender inequalities, which are barriers to access to care. This is the only way we can if we want to stop these outbreaks.

To achieve this, additional investments are needed. If we do not intensify our efforts, we can face a rapid resurgence of these epidemics, and we will no longer be able to eliminate them by 2030. There is urgency: this resurgence we already see in some country.

Today, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria finances half of all HIV treatment in low- and middle-income countries. It provides 65% of the funding available for the fight against tuberculosis and 57% for malaria. These funds have made great progress, but they are still insufficient: many experts estimate the needs of the Global Fund at $ 6 billion a year to meet the challenges posed, compared with the $ 4 billion currently available.

It is time for you, leaders of the world, to enter history by putting an end to these three pandemics.

You can do it in a generation. 40 years after the eradication of smallpox, humanity can take a new course for progress and health. Demonstrate ambition and political courage: the resources to be mobilized represent only 0.0025% of the world's wealth. Meager means of hope: a world free of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Mr. President of the French Republic,

October 10, 2019, you will welcome in Lyon the 6th Global Fund Replenishment Conference. This is a strong signal, a unique opportunity to make France the leader in a fairer, more stable and more egalitarian world.

We, actors and actresses of the fight against these three pandemics, personalities of the civil society, scientists, representatives of badociations, and citizens, ask you to make every effort to put an end to the epidemics of HIV / AIDS , tuberculosis and malaria. For this, we call on you to mobilize your counterparts to ensure the financial success of the conference in 2019.

Ladies and gentlemen, we must act now. Do not let yourself be contaminated by indifference: you have the choice, you have the power to rid the world of these scourges. We are counting on you.

You can sign the Aids petition: a minute to act on the Change.org website by clicking here.

Also signed this forum:

– Bruno Rivalan, Deputy Executive Director, Global Health Action

– Aurélie Gal-Régniez, Executive Director, Balances & Populations

– Philippe de Botton, President, Doctors of the World

– Friederike Röder, EU and France Director, ONE

Florence Thune, Executive Director, Sidaction

– Luc Barruet, founding director, Solidarité Sida

– Louis Pizarro, General Manager, Solthis

-Véronique Séhier, President, Family Planning

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