Global Fund Embraces Fast-Track Approach on AIDS
30 November 2015
GENEVA - To mark World AIDS Day on 1 December, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria declared its strong support for Fast-Track, the smart approach by UNAIDS to end the epidemic by 2030.
In a new report , "On the Fast-Track to end AIDS by 2030: Focus on location and population," UNAIDS identifies all the most critical factors: the need to front-load investments; to focus on the locations, populations and programs that deliver the greatest impact; to catalyze innovation; engage local leadership; to creates new partnerships, to stand firm on human rights, and to deliver results that leave no one behind.
UNAIDS and the Global Fund work together closely, and are achieving impressive results in partnership. Antiretroviral therapy has grown from 4 percent coverage in 2005 in countries where the Global Fund invests to 21 percent in 2010 and 40 percent in 2014.
Out of the over 15 million people currently receiving ARV treatment worldwide, 8.1 million are receiving them through Global Fund-supported programs, with steady increases each year.
Treatment has been a tremendous contributing factor to reducing deaths from AIDS by more than 40 percent, from 2 million in 2004 to 1.1 million in 2014. The number of new HIV infections has also declined by 36 percent between 2000 and 2014, in countries supported by the Global Fund.
However, AIDS is still the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age, and overall one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Since 2000, more than 38 million people have become infected with HIV; two million became newly infected in 2014 alone.
Adolescent girls and young women are drastically more vulnerable to HIV than their male counterparts. Stigma, discrimination and other human rights violations against people with HIV limit their access to health services, increasing the risk that the disease will spread.
The Global Fund supports countries in the fight against HIV and calls for strategic investments to maximize available resources and make bigger impact against the disease.
But to end the epidemic by 2030, more work needs to be done. The Board of the Global Fund has recently approved a new framework for its 2017-2022 strategy to maximize impact, strengthen systems for health, promote and protect human rights and gender equality, and mobilize additional resources. Working together in partnership is essential to reach those in need of treatment and to end the epidemic by 2030.