00:00This Monday marks World AIDS Day to raise awareness about HIV, which was contracted by 1.3 million people globally last year.
00:07The fight to curb and eradicate the disease has hit a roadblock with steep cuts in funding.
00:13The UN has warned that failure to restore prevention endeavours could result in an additional 3.3 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2030.
00:21Today, nearly 41 million people are living with HIV worldwide, with children and young women particularly vulnerable, especially across the Africa region.
00:30Charlotte Hughes has the details.
00:33After decades of progress, the UN has warned that the fight against HIV is at a crossroads.
00:40Ahead of World AIDS Day, the UNAIDS Executive Director stated that international funding cuts, including from the United States, have hampered the global HIV response.
00:49Since the abrupt pause by the United States in February, the complex ecosystem that sustains HIV services in dozens of low- and middle-income countries was shaken to its core.
01:07Clinics closed without warning, thousands of health workers faced job losses or lost salaries, and life-saving testing, treatment and prevention services experienced widespread and continuing disruption.
01:28According to UNAIDS, the distribution of preventative medicines fell sharply since the cuts.
01:34It decreased by 31% in Uganda, 64% in Burundi, and 21% in Vietnam.
01:41Today, nearly 41 million people are living with HIV worldwide.
01:451.3 million new infections occurred last year, and around 9 million people are still not receiving treatment.
01:51Children and young women are particularly vulnerable, especially across the Africa region.
01:56Across 13 countries, the number of people newly initiated on treatment has declined compared to last year.
02:08Stockouts of HIV test kits and medicines have been reported in countries including Ethiopia and the Diara Congo.
02:18Prevention services, already under strain before the crisis, were the hardest hit.
02:25UNAIDS has warned that the failure to restore prevention endeavours could result in an additional 3.3 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2030.
02:35For more on this story, let's bring in Vincent Leclerc, the general director of Coalition Plus, which is a federation of NGOs globally, which aims to remove barriers to accessing health services in order to end HIV AIDS.
02:50Thank you so much for being on set with us.
02:52Thank you for the invitation.
02:53Of course, so give us a sense from your point of view of the current trends that we're seeing when it comes to global HIV infections.
03:00The word setback was used earlier. Just how dangerous a situation are we in?
03:06Until 2024, we've had great results on the HIV epidemic.
03:11Life expectancy of people living with HIV is nearly the same as the rest of the population.
03:16The number of new infections was declining a lot, the number of deaths as well, but what happened in January 2025 was a blow for the HIV response.
03:27And now the situation is still unclear, but there are models from UNAIDS that say that until 2030, there will be an additional 2 million new deaths and an additional 4 million new infections because of the cuts.
03:46It's indeed a very bad situation for the HIV response.
03:49And last year, we were very optimistic. Now we are no more in condition to reach the end of the HIV epidemic.
03:57You mentioned January 2025. Just to make this clear to our viewers, this is the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C.,
04:05and his decision to completely cut back on any international aid efforts.
04:10Can you give us a clearer picture of how this situation affects young people specifically?
04:16Just to mention that the U.S. funding was paying for the whole supply chain of access to treatment, access to prevention, access to testing.
04:24And all the populations are affected by the disruptions of service, among which young generations.
04:32But moreover, this situation adds some more misinformation and the idea that HIV is no more priority.
04:41And as we all know, we lack information for the younger generations.
04:47We need some more additional information.
04:51But this situation is misleading people, saying that HIV is no more priority.
04:57So the consequence is that people are less informed, people have less access to treatment, people have less access to testing.
05:05And this will have an effect on the long term on the HIV epidemic.
05:09You mentioned information a number of times.
05:13Are young people today just not as informed?
05:17Are we having to debunk old myths about HIV, AIDS once again, now with this new generation of people, basically?
05:23I wouldn't blame young generations.
05:26I think we need to evolve in the way we communicate toward young generations using social media, influencers.
05:32But also, the situation, this situation is also because we have had great news on HIV.
05:42Life expectancy is better.
05:43We have PrEP.
05:44PrEP is a medicine that is 100% efficient to prevent an infection.
05:49So we have all this good news.
05:52That's maybe why people think HIV is less a priority and there is less information.
05:56But also, we are in a world with kind of a conservative wave.
06:02And it's every day harder to do prevention at schools.
06:07There are strong conservative movements with a lot of money having an influence in many countries on policies, on health policies.
06:16There are even new laws against homosexuality, for example, in many countries.
06:20And all those conservative initiatives pile the pressure on HIV programs.
06:26There must be so much frustration to see how much progress has been made over the years and to now be dealing with these setbacks once again.
06:33What can be done, apart from calling and lobbying for more aid, for more funding?
06:39How do you adapt your work to this new context with less financing?
06:44You've just come back from Colombia, for instance, where you were leading initiative there.
06:48Well, today we are launching a campaign, a still standing campaign, because we want to show that we are still positive.
06:57And we are people living with HIV.
07:00We are people from the communities and we won't stop the fight.
07:04So, yes, in Colombia, we launched the International Testing Week.
07:08There is an annual event to remind everybody, remind policymakers, to remind also the communities and people that doing a test is something essential to know your HIV status, to have access to treatment.
07:24So, we should often organize such events to remind the population that the HIV epidemic is not over.
07:32As you mentioned, there are still 41 million people living with HIV.
07:36There are an additional 1.3 million people contracting HIV every year.
07:41So, the epidemic is not over.
07:44So, please, everyone, get tested.
07:47Just one last question here.
07:50I mean, we've mentioned the importance of information.
07:52People don't necessarily have all of it.
07:53Can you just remind us about the treatment options available for people living with HIV AIDS?
08:00And, obviously, remind us where do we stand in terms of accessing those treatments?
08:04We are living a revolution regarding HIV treatment now.
08:09We have lots of options.
08:11So, someone contracting HIV, being tested, can be on treatment the same day of the diagnostic.
08:17And, the life expectancy will be the same as everyone, which is very good news.
08:23But, also, someone under treatment won't transmit HIV.
08:27And, in the future, there will be new treatment coming, like one pill a month or one injection every six months to not take an oral pill every day.
08:38That are very good news.
08:40But, we need to continue research.
08:42We need to continue the efforts on prevention, but also on surveillance.
08:46And, all those three areas are under pressure now because of the budget cuts.
08:52Vincent Leclerc, you're the General Director of Coalition Plus, a federation of NGOs that works towards removing barriers to accessing health services.
09:02Thank you so much for sharing your insights on for S24.
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