"Dangerous complacency" hovers over world meeting on AIDS, life and culture



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Fri, Jul 20, 2018 – 4:29 PM

[PARIS] Thousands of experts and activists travel to Amsterdam on Monday to support the fight against AIDS, while "dangerous complacency" could provoke a resurgence of the epidemic that has already killed Instead of moving towards the goal of "ending AIDS", new HIV infections have exploded in some parts of the world while the attention World Bank has declined and funding has stabilized, say the leaders of the AIDS movement. 19659003] They deplore the fact that too much attention to suppressive virus treatment has overshadowed basic prevention, so that HIV continues to spread easily among the most vulnerable people

"Encouraging reductions in news HIV infections a decade has encouraged some to declare that we are within reach of the end of AIDS, "said Peter Piot, veteran virus researcher and founder of the UNAids agency.

However," he There is absolutely no evidence to support this conclusion He insisted that "the wording on the elimination of AIDS has engendered a dangerous complacency".

Declining global and national funding for HIV eradication and treatment programs is evident, Piot said at this week's launch. A report by the International Aids Society (IAS) and The Lancet Medical Journal

The authors of this report, he said, "are extremely concerned about the real risk that the world will declare victory well before our fight against AIDS "

By rubbing shoulders with celebrities like actress Charlize Theron, Prince Harry, and singers Elton John and Conchita, more than 15,000 delegates are expected in the Dutch capital for the conference that s & ## Monday opens

The high-level speeches will attempt to revive the fight, the five-day event will also be an opportunity for scientists to look at recent advances and setbacks in the quest for simpler and better anti-HIV drugs.

Three decades of research have not yet helped cure or vaccinate the AIDS virus that has infected nearly 80 million people since the beginning of the epidemic. epidemic on the At the world stage in the early 1980s.

Last year, people living with the virus who, thanks to antiretroviral therapy (Art), are no longer a death sentence.

He reported the lowest annual count in two decades and a record number of people on life-saving treatment

The report also reports that new HIV infections are increasing in about 50 countries and more than doubling in number. Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Linda-Gail Bekker, president of the IAS, said Strategic Error on the part of AIDS gurus: "prioritizing treatment at the expense of preventing HIV infection – the only way Real Stop the Epidemic "

" There is no epidemic we have gotten rid of, "citing Ebola and the bathtub It is clear that a vaccine is the Holy Grail, but we are not there yet.

Meanwhile, the world needs renewed attention on prevention, said Ms. Bekker – emphasizing the use of condoms. From the elimination of viruses the art as shield against infections, and provide safe and non-infected needles to drug addicts.

But to do this while caring for the 15.2 million infected people who do not yet have access, the world needs money.

And at a time when the US administration under Donald Trump has promised to reduce AIDS spending.

A report released this week by UNAids and the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy NGO, found that after two years of decline. Global funding, donor payments to low- and middle-income countries increased 16 percent to $ 8.1 billion last year.

But he warned that this was not a reason to celebrate because the trend "should not last". The extra money came mainly from a turnover towards 2017 US government funds t – by far the largest donor of AIDS programs – it was appropriate but n? 39? had not been spent in previous years

Funding from donor governments "is expected to decline again," according to the report. It would take about $ 7 billion a year for AIDS to stop being a threat to public health by 2030, reducing new infections and deaths by 90% by 2010.

"The work is not over," says Robert Matiru director of operations at Unitaid, a nonprofit channeling funding for HIV research and development

"We need people to continue to finance … but even to increase. "

Ms. Bekker fears that "we are either going into this epidemic or are going backwards," she warns.

"As soon as you withdraw your attention from the ball, the infections will come back and we will see that this thing will start again."

AFP

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