Translating Progress Into Success to End the AIDS Epidemic
The AIDS epidemic can be ended.
That is not a fantasy—it is a matter of choice.
Dramatic reductions in HIV incidence and mortality have been accomplished in very different settings around the world, from Malawi and Thailand to London and San Francisco. While success was achieved in different ways in each location, taken together they demonstrate the gains that can be realized on a global scale.
This website (and accompanying publication) highlights six locations that have made impressive progress against the epidemic. Each visual provides an HIV surveillance timeline as well as crucial policy changes—inflection points—that contributed to success.
For all the scientific and social complexity of AIDS, there is no secret about what it will take to end the epidemic, as demonstrated by these six examples in unique ways:
- Campaigns to encourage HIV testing, particularly among groups most affected
- Free and easy access to treatment at diagnosis with HIV, regardless of CD4 level
- Scale-up of evidence-based HIV prevention, such as voluntary medical male circumcision, pre-exposure prophylaxis, and harm reduction
- Concerted efforts to provide human rights-based services and social supports alongside programs to fight stigma and discrimination, ideally in the context of broad health care access
Download the Report.
End The EpidemicEnding the Epidemic:
Headlines of the Future
This graph* depicts UNAIDS Fast-Track targets. Remarkable strides have been made at the global level, with declines in new HIV diagnoses to 1.8 million and AIDS-related deaths to 940,000 in 2017. Still, we remain off-track for reaching UNAIDS 2020 targets, particularly for HIV incidence. Closing the gaps between actual and projected progress (illustrated by the dotted lines) will require urgent progress on structural barriers and development and scale-up of evidence-based policies, products, and research. Only with a global commitment to accelerating these interventions will we begin to see a steeper drop in incidence and deaths. Click to enlarge or download the full report.
We have the tools to end this modern-day plague. We must not squander the opportunity. History will judge us harshly if we do.
