“We must close the gaps that keep people from accessing services and living with dignity”. Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, who was also part of the discussion, added that money was needed to get “stuff” done.
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Harry and Sir Elton later hosted a discussion on what must change to meet the needs of young people with HIV. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS has been steadily increasing and reached 38.8 million in 2015.
He said donors were focusing on male circumcision as a primary prevention tool as well as the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programme, a pill that is taken daily to reduce infection, that had been rolled out in South Africa. But still over half of those who need treatment are not yet receiving it.
While the total number of new infections declined globally from 2005 to 2015, certain countries saw a rise in numbers of people becoming infected, calling for better targeting of prevention programs in order to end AIDS by 2030.
“Our political leaders want to talk about the millions who are on treatment – which is a far cry from the last Durban AIDS conference”, said Anele Yawa of the Treatment Action Campaign. “If there is a resurgence in new HIV infections now, the epidemic will become impossible to control”.
“Our progress is incredibly fragile”, he said.
The progress and advances made in the research against the AIDS pandemic is the epicentre of this year worldwide AIDS conference underway in South Africa.
Addressing delegates, Harry, who has visited Lesotho many times since the age of 19, said he had seen that “children with HIV grapple with several medical, emotional and social challenges all at once” and that “just focusing on the physical effects of the disease wasn’t enough”.
The fund was formed in November 2015 with the aim of addressing stigma, discrimination and violence faced by lesbians, gays, bisexual people and transgender people.
Health officials next turned to sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to the majority of newly reported HIV infections as well as a second subtype of the virus. It is all too common for a 12 year old boy or girl to be forced out to work so they can provide for their brothers and sisters, having lost one or both parents to AIDS.
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During a press conference, Wang used Pakistan as an example to highlight the importance of access to antiretroviral therapy.
