Accelerate efforts to end AIDS by 2030

Massive gains have been achieved in our fight against HIV. We now have more than 10 million people on HIV treatment globally. Efforts continue and are being accelerated to achieve the ambitious target of ending AIDS by 2030.

In the WHO South-East Asia Region, as of 2013, we had around 3.4 million people living with HIV; 1.1 million of them are currently on treatment. In 2004, 83 000 people were on treatment. We have managed to increase the coverage 12-fold in a decade.

Concerted responses led by civil society movements, supported by national and international commitments bolstered by scientific research have made this possible. While there is much to cheer about, it is a sobering reality that we still need to reach out to more than 50% of people estimated to be living with HIV who are either not linked to care or not aware of their status.

The HIV epidemic in our Region is concentrated among populations most vulnerable to HIV: men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who inject drugs, sex workers, people in prisons and other closed settings. Although we have been successful in scaling up the health sector response for the vulnerable populations, more needs to be done. Less than 50% of these people know their HIV status.

Stigma, discrimination and restrictive laws continue to be barriers to accessing prevention, care and treatment services. We are on the right path and science is helping us identify newer, better and more effective interventions for the prevention and management of HIV. This year WHO has launched the updated Consolidated Guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection and on HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations. These are guided by human rights principles and call for governments to enforce protective laws to eliminate discrimination and violence faced by key populations.

WHO is releasing a new update to recommend antiretroviral drugs as an emergency prevention intervention following possible HIV exposure for HIV-negative individuals, and to prevent and manage common infections that affect many people living with HIV.

On the World Aids Day let us resolve to continue our fight until we have seen the end of AIDS and secured ourselves a generation free of HIV.

- Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh