The United Nations has announced it will implement a political declaration to fast-track the fight against HIV and AIDS and bring an end to the epidemic by 2030.
The Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS is devoted to eliminating the life-threatening epidemic disease in less than 15 years. It includes a plan to alleviate the death toll to less than 500,000 before the year 2020. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said during the meeting that enormous progress has been made in fighting the disease.
"The AIDS response is a source of innovation and inspiration, demonstrating what is possible when science, community activism, political leadership, and passion and compassion come together. I commend everyone involved in this remarkable effort and I wish you success in your deliberations and in ending the worldwide scourge of HIV/AIDS," said Ban Ki-moon.
Several heads of state, health experts and people living with HIV, as well as representatives from civil society and international organizations, attended the three-day High-Level meeting. Following the declaration, work will now begin on setting up a fast-paced strategy to end the epidemic by 2030. Ban called on the international community to continue funding the AIDS response, and to ensure that people living with HIV or AIDS have access to comprehensive services.
It's a political declaration that being called new, bold, progressive, historic, but probably most importantly urgent as well. What the declaration says out is a blueprint, a roadmap for the next five years ahead, after which of course governments have signed on now need to really deliver on the specific time bound target which has been set up within the text.
We've been talking about 17 million people are now accessing life-saving anti-virus. It's 2 million more in the year 2015 alone. They want to build up that momentum. They want to really ramp it up so that they can double the number of people on anti-virus by the year 2020. That means if that succeeds, about 90 percent of all people worldwide which right now about over 30 million living with HIV will be on this life-saving ARTS.
It's really really ambitious but it's essential that they stick to the timetable, targets because of course what they are trying to realise are the mini steps and important many steps leading up to a world with no aids by 2030. That's the vision not only set by UN AIDS but a vision that's now part officially of sustainable development goals. They've also laid out target that related to the prevention of HIV infections in children, in girls and in women.
A lot of people realise if you are living in a developing country and if you are a woman that reproductive H, the most likely disease you are gonna die of is still AIDS. We've talking to many people over the last couple of days here in New York, to scientists, to innovators, to political figures and of course to the UN itself and what they agree is that the governments really need to commit, they need to deliver on what they signed off here.
Every single member state has signed off here on the high level meeting. It's not only simply a high-level meeting on AIDS but a high-level meeting on ending AIDS.
