World AIDS Day is upon us, so I thought I’d ponder on some of the new knowledge that I gained at The International AIDS Conference which was held this year in Vienna from July 18-23.

There was such a wealth of information in such a short amount of time; it was quite overwhelming to be bale to take everything in. Believe it or not, I’m actually still listening to podcasts of the lectures right now!

I was lucky enough to talk to lots of young people about their views on HIV/AIDS, and their main aim seemed to be to eradicate stigma and discrimination against people living with the virus.

 'Representatives and HIV positive people, who came from all over the world to attend the conference, still felt their voices were falling on deaf ears'

In terms of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, now is not the time to be slowing down. Why is it that 2 out of 3 people infected with the virus are not receiving treatment? Why are 10 million people worldwide on a waiting list to receive medication? Why are 7 million Africans who should be getting treatment not receiving it?

At times there were waves of anger, frustration and a feeling of betrayal; people seemed to think not enough was being done and promises were being broken. Representatives and HIV positive people, who came from all over the world to attend the conference, still felt their voices were falling on deaf ears.

Yes, great progress has been made, and of course AIDS presents a huge global challenge, but it seems clear that progress is not being kept up. $28.6 billion is needed in order to meet country-set targets for universal access to treatment. And guess what? $11 billion is missing from the pot.

I don’t want to dwell too much on the negative realities though. There is some good news! Young people are leading the prevention breakthrough that is so desperately needed: HIV prevalence between young people aged between 15-24 has dropped more than 25% in 15 of the countries most affected by HIV/AIDS. This is mainly because young people are waiting longer to become sexually active, have fewer partners and are using condoms.

'Young people are leading the prevention breakthrough that is so desperately needed: HIV prevalence between young people aged between 15-24 has dropped more than 25% in 15 of the countries most affected by HIV/AIDS.'

There have also been advances in human rights. China, for example, have introduced a programme of needle exchange, and travel restrictions for HIV positive people to certain countries have been lifted. “For the first time, we can say that we are breaking the trajectory of the Aids epidemic,” commented Michel Sidibe, executive director for UNAIDS. Slowly but surely, it seems that the message is getting across and the gap between prevention and treatment is being closed.

Nevertheless, there is a ridiculously large funding gap, as contributions from donors are sadly slowing down. Now really isn’t the time to be slowing down the fight to tackle HIV/AIDS. If the response isn’t maintained and strengthened, there is a real risk of destabilising and weakening the progress that has already been made, not only with HIV/AIDS, but also within international development as a whole.

I took away a lot from the conference, but the most important thing I learnt is that when it comes to confronting the HIV/AIDS epidemic, we should be speeding up, not slowing down.

Words: Carissa Yeboah

Photos: Flickr user IFRC

For more information from the conference click here

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