Support communities that ‘light the way to the end of AIDS’ - UNAIDS
New York, US (PANA) - AIDS can be ended as a public health threat by 2030 but only if governments and donors fully support grasstoots communities on the frontlines of the disease.
That’s the message from UNAIDS in a report released ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 December, which shows how communities have been the driving force for progress.
From the streets to the courtrooms to parliaments, community advocacy has secured groundbreaking changes in policy, it said.
Through campaigning, they have opened up access to generic HIV medicines, thus driving down the cost of treatment from $25,000 a year per person in 1995 to less than $70 in many countries.
UNAIDS recalled that every minute, a life is lost to AIDS, while 4,000 girls and young women become infected with HIV every week. Out of the nearly 40 million people worldwide living with HIV, more than nine million do not have access to lifesaving treatment.
Although communities across the world have shown that they are ready, willing and able to lead, they must be properly resourced, said UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima.
“Too often, communities are treated by decision-makers as problems to be managed, instead of being recognised and supported as leaders,” she said. “Communities are not in the way, they light the way to the end of AIDS.”
-0- PANA MA 28Nov2023
