New infections, at 2.1 million in 2015, still exceed the number of people starting antiretroviral treatment each year, Chris Beyrer, president of the International AIDS Society said.
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Both the Prince Harry and Sir Elton left personal messages on a pro-test HIV wall displayed at the Durban ICC.
“On behalf of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and PEPFAR, I’m delighted to present the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (The Alliance) and the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) as inaugural recipients of The LGBT Fund”, said Sir Elton John, founder of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. In helping young people to fight HIV we would not just be ending this epidemic, we would change the direction of history for an entire generation.
Gray says they’ve been working since around 2009/2010 to develop a vaccine based on the moderately efficacious vaccine used in Thailand. “As people with HIV live longer, Aids is a topic that has drifted from the headlines, and with that drift of attention we risk a real drift of funding and of action to beat the virus”, he added.
The world must find ways to achieve long-term remission because a permanent HIV cure is unlikely to be discovered soon, International Aids Society scientists have said.
Elton John called the prince a powerful ally in the fight against AIDS, the leading cause of death among adolescents in Africa, where around 30 people are infected every hour.
Prince Harry has recently focused more of his engagements around HIV – even taking a HIV test himself in a Facebook Live video earlier this month.
A United Nations goal to get seven out of 10 HIV positive people to take a test, start medication and suppress the deadly virus in their blood is achievable, a study in East Africa showed on Wednesday, raising hopes of ending the AIDS pandemic.
“It is time for us to step up and acknowledge that stigma and discrimination still act as the greatest barrier to us defeating this disease once and for all”.
John noted that “Today, HIV/AIDS is a treatable disease and no longer the death sentence it was 10 years ago, but we can not grow complacent in our fight to eradicate it”.
Only 17 million of the 36.7 million HIV positive people around the world are taking antiretroviral treatment.
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However, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 report, which tracks the incidence and treatment trends of HIV/AIDS in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2015, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has been steadily increasing and reached 38.8 million in 2015 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 37.6-40.4 million).
