Prince Harry will address delegates at an Aids conference today as he takes his campaign to raise awareness about HIV to the global stage.
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The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the Global Forum on MSM & HIV work in nations with high rates of HIV, John said at a conference on AIDS in Durban, South Africa.
Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was the first member of the Royal Family to have contact with a person suffering from HIV/Aids.
Speaking at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, he celebrated that HIV is no longer a “death sentence” as it was when his mother famously championed the cause.
His speech comes just one week after he took an HIV test and live-streamed it on Facebook.
“It is impossible to say exactly how far we are, but one thing we can say is that over the last seven years we have made important strides in the direction of getting a vaccine”, he said, “but getting an HIV vaccine will probably be one of the most important and hard scientific challenges in all of HIV research”.
HIV cure research was the topic of the International AIDS Society’s Towards an HIV Cure symposium preceding the main conference. “And with that drift of attention, we risk a real drift of funding and of action to beat the virus”, he said.
This is according to Prince Harry‚ co-founder and patron of the Lesotho-based Sentebale foundation that supports and treats children who have the disease.
The largest generation in history is entering the age where they are most at risk of HIV, Gates said.
This year’s conference featured a special emphasis on youth, who have high rates of HIV in many areas – including the USA, where new infections are highest among young black gay men. Music provided courtesy of APM Music.
The two princes watched as their organisation’s staff and youth volunteers explained how residential camps, monthly Saturday clubs and caregiver days help educate families and communities on supporting young people in their care with HIV.
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He said he wants to ensure that LGBT people are protected if they are denied medical treatment or arrested. Of this investment, $40 million is focused on keeping girls in secondary school, which dramatically reduces their vulnerability to HIV infection, and almost half of these education-focused resources are directed to Malawi.
