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AIDS 2010 Delegates and Speakers Unite in Support of Full Funding
For the Global Fund, the Next Milestone in Drive for Universal Access
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Philanthropist Bill Gates Address Conference
19 July 2010 [Vienna, Austria] - Scientists, practitioners and advocates from around the world
today made a united call for global leaders to commit at least $US20 billion to the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at its upcoming replenishment meeting in October. Because
the level of replenishment committed at the meeting will determine the Global Fund's grant levels
for 2011-2013, the meeting is widely viewed as the critical next step towards universal access to
HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
"The replenishment is the moment at which we will know whether or not world leaders intend to
fulfil the promise they made to universal access," said Dr. Brigitte Schmied, AIDS 2010 Local Co-
Chair and President of the Austrian AIDS Society. "The rich scientific findings and on-the-ground
experiences presented at AIDS 2010 should be all the evidence that leaders of all nations need to
fully commit to doing their part."
The Global Fund has a strong record of success that includes supporting 2.5 million people on
treatment, treatment for almost 800,000 HIV-positive women to prevent vertical transmission and
an estimated 4.9 million lives saved. Support for the Global Fund is vital, but alone is not sufficient
to reaching universal access. Increased financial support must extend beyond donor government
pledges to the Global Fund to include innovative financing mechanisms, increased support from
the private sector and full implementation of the Abuja Declaration in which African nations
committed to spend at least 15% of their national budgets on health.
"We are at a pivotal moment in the global response to AIDS and there is both a moral and a public
health imperative that we continue in the right direction, especially as HIV treatment guidelines are
expanded to reach people earlier in the course of their disease and our understanding that
providing antiretroviral treatment also prevents new transmissions continues to grow," said Dr.
Julio Montaner, AIDS 2010 Chair, President of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and Director of
the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, Canada. "Increased financial
commitments must be matched with a drive for the most efficient use of available resources."
Efficiency was an important theme in a Sunday town hall meeting on a new paradigm for HIV
treatment and prevention sponsored by UNAIDS and the IAS. The meeting featured UNAIDS'
launch of Treatment 2.0, a strategy that has as its goals the development of better combination
treatment regimens, cheaper and simplified diagnostic tools, and a low-cost, community-led
approach to delivery.
Monday's plenary session included three powerful and notable voices:
Keynote Address: President Bill Clinton
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton of the William J. Clinton Foundation delivered a keynote
address.
Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention
In her plenary remarks, Vuyiseka Dubula (South Africa) of the Treatment Action Campaign noted
that HIV prevention is a universal goal regardless of one's HIV status. Dubula spoke to the
framework of Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention, a comprehensive approach to supporting
people living with HIV with their prevention and social needs through empowerment and with
dignity rather than through fear or coercion. In many cases, the failure of governments to recognize
human rights violations that oppress and punish leads to oversimplified prevention interventions
that ignore the full spectrum of challenges shaping the prevention needs of HIV-positive people.
Treatment as prevention provides an opportunity to keep access to treatment high on the global
agenda. Scientists and activists need to find new ways to ensure that world leaders are
accountable for the targets they set by replenishing the Global fund with at least US$20 billion and
this will be a step to recognizing the importance of the right to health and human rights. Treatment
must remain a goal, whether or not prevention is a goal. Many of the values, principles and
components of Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention go hand-in-hand with achieving universal
access and contribute to the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals. The leadership of
people living with HIV is crucial in responding to policy and legal barriers and in advancing HIV
programmes, especially in terms of access to treatment and care, attention to gender inequality,
and the needs of young people, including children living with HIV, she argued.
HIV, Drug Policy and Harm Reduction
Anya Sarang (Russia) of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice examined the
use of harm reduction in HIV prevention, arguing for programmes and policies rooted in human
rights. Noting that policies of the so-called "war on drugs" maximize harm, including risk of HIV
infection and drug-user deaths, Sarang called on national governments to promote evidence-based
approaches to harm reduction - including scale-up of easy-to-access needle and syringe
distribution programmes, opioid substitution therapy, and community organizing - and to resist
policies that criminalize drug users.
Drawing on examples from China, Iran, Russia, Thailand, Uzbekistan and other countries, Sarang
examined factors that foster HIV risk, transmission and excess deaths among drug users. These
include state reluctance to endorse evidence-based harm reduction interventions, the fear and
terror generated by policies of the "war on drugs", and the social stigma and discrimination
exercised through criminal justice agencies, health systems and coerced drug treatment. Using
Australia as an example, she showed the ability of evidence-based harm reduction programmes
implemented early in the HIV epidemic to contain or prevent HIV among people who inject drugs.
Sarang pointed to the strong evidence in support of effective drug policies as a call to action to
challenge governments that do not support them and to advocate for structural change to enable
the scale-up of evidence-based HIV prevention for people who inject drugs.
Bill Gates to Address Special Session on HIV Prevention on Monday
Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will address a special session entitled,
Building on Success: A Roadmap for Prevention at 13:00 in Session Room 1. The session will be
webcast by the Kaiser Family Foundation and will be viewable through the conference website.
Pre-Conference Meetings Address Key Issues
Many AIDS 2010 delegates arrived in Vienna as early as last week to begin work. Over 300 young
people attended the four-day Youth Pre-Conference to network and gain skills in research,
advocacy and communications. The BE HEARD! Pre-Conference organized by the Global Forum
on Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSMGF) attracted over 500 participants. At the meeting, public
health leaders called for an end to the human rights abuses against MSM that contribute to HIV
vulnerability. Other pre-meetings focused on strengthening health systems, eradicating HIV
reservoirs and children's issues, including the latest models of family-centred care and services for
children affected by HIV and AIDS.
Visit www.aids2010.org for complete programme information and comprehensive online coverage,
as well as a link to the Vienna Declaration, the official declaration of the XVIII International AIDS
Conference, which calls for a reorientation of international drug policy.
About the AIDS 2010 Organizers
AIDS 2010 is convened by the IAS, the world’s leading independent association of HIV
professionals, in partnership with a number of international, regional and local partners.
International partners for AIDS 2010 include:
• Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), including its co-sponsors, the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
• International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO)
• Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+)/International Community of Women
Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW)
• World YWCA
• Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC)
Local and regional partners for AIDS 2010 include local scientific leadership and:
• City of Vienna
• Government of Austria
• Aids Hilfe Wien
• Austrian AIDS Society
• East European & Central Asian Union of PLWH (ECUO)
• European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS)
• European Commission
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MEDIA CONTACTS
Regina Aragón (Rome)
International AIDS Society
regina.aragon@gmail.com
+39 329 445 9590
Christian Strohmann (Vienna)
AIDS 2010 Local Secretariat
christian.strohmann@aids2010.org
+43 699 181 73002
Scott Sanders (Washington, DC)
High Noon Communications
scott@highnooncommunications.com
+1 202 332 2303
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