UN Summit Resolves to Set Specific Targets to Eliminate HIV/AIDS

he UN General Assembly meeting for HIV/AIDS has resolved to set specific targets on elimination of HIV/AIDS through reduction in sexual transmission, elimination of mother to child transmission and put more number of patients on Anti Retroviral Therapy by 2015. The member countries adopted the resolution on “Intensifying our efforts to Eliminate HIV/AIDS” at the end of the three day high level meeting at New York last night. The High Level Meeting on AIDS was convened by the Secretary General of UN General Assembly from 8th to 10th June 2011 at New York to charter the future course of action in the battle against HIV/AIDS. More than 3000 delegates from 192 countries attended the three day conference. The delegations included 30 Heads of States and governments, Ministers, senior officials, representatives of International organizations and civil society as also people living with HIV.

The Indian delegation was led by the Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad. The other members included - Shri Oscar Fernandes and Shri J D Seelam, Hon’ble Members of Parliament, Shri Sayan Chatterjee, Secretary, Department of AIDS Control, Ms. Aradhana Johri, Additional Secretary, Department of AIDS Control and senior officers from National AIDS Control Organisation. More than a dozen representatives from civil society and NGOs participated in the deliberations.

The major highlights of the resolution are as under:

1. The Heads of State and Government and representatives of States and Governments reviewed the progress achieved in realizing the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, with a view to guiding and intensifying the global response to HIV and AIDS by promoting continued political commitment and engagement of leaders in a comprehensive response at community, local, national, regional and international levels to halt and reverse the HIV epidemic and mitigate its impact.

2. The countries recognized that HIV and AIDS constitute a global emergency and pose one of the most formidable challenges to the development, progress and stability of our respective societies and the world at large, and require an exceptional and comprehensive global response that takes into account that the spread of HIV is often a consequence and cause of poverty.

3. The members expressed deep concern that funding devoted to HIV and AIDS responses is still not commensurate with the magnitude of the epidemic either nationally or internationally, and that the global financial and economic crises continue to have a negative impact on the HIV and AIDS response at all .

4. The countries noted that many national HIV prevention strategies inadequately focus on populations that epidemiological evidence shows are at higher risk, specifically men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs and sex workers, and further note however that each country should define the specific populations that are key to its epidemic and response, based on the epidemiological and national context.

5. The countries committed to redouble efforts to achieve, by 2015, universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support as a critical step towards ending the global HIV epidemic, with a view to achieving Millennium Development Goal 6, in particular to halt and begin to reverse by 2015 the spread of HIV.

6. The countries reaffirmed that prevention of HIV must be the cornerstone of national, regional and international responses to the HIV epidemic.

7. The countries committed to ensure that national prevention strategies comprehensively target populations at higher risk; ensure that systems of data collection and analysis about these populations are strengthened; and take measures to ensure that HIV services, including voluntary and confidential HIV testing and counseling, are accessible to these populations so that they are encouraged to access HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

8. The countries committed to working towards reducing sexual transmission of HIV by 50 per cent by 2015.

9. The countries committed to working towards reducing transmission of HIV among people who inject drugs by 50 per cent by 2015.

10. The countries committed to working towards the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015 and substantially reducing AIDS-related maternal deaths.

11. The countries committed to accelerate efforts to achieve the goal of universal access to anti-retroviral treatment for those eligible based on WHO HIV treatment guidelines that indicate timely initiation ofquality assured treatment for its maximum benefit, with the target of working towards 15 million people living with HIV on antiretroviral treatment by 2015.

12. The countries committed to promote services that integrate prevention, treatment and care of co-occurringconditions including tuberculosis.

13. The countries committed to remove before 2015, where feasible, obstacles which limit the capacity of low-and middle-income countries to provide affordable and effective HIV prevention and treatment products, diagnostics, medicines and commodities.

14. The countries agreed to use, to the full, of existing flexibilities under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement specifically geared to promoting access to and trade of medicines; and ensure that intellectual property rights provisions in trade agreements do not undermine these existing flexibilities, as confirmed by the Doha Declaration on TRIPS Agreement.

15. The countries committed to expand efforts to combat tuberculosis, which is a leading cause of death among people living with HIV, by improving TB screening, TB prevention, access to diagnosis and treatment of TB and drug-resistant TB and access to antiretroviral therapy, through more integrated delivery ofHIV and TB.

16. The countries committed by 2015, through a series of incremental steps and through our shared responsibility, to reach a significant level of annual global expenditure on HIV and AIDS, by increasing national ownership of HIV and AIDS responses through greater allocations from national resources and traditional sources of funding including official development assistance.

17. The countries committed to accelerate research and development for a safe, affordable, effective and accessible vaccine and for a cure for HIV, while ensuring that sustainable systems for vaccine procurement and equitable distribution are also developed.