The 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS2024), the world’s largest gathering of people living with, affected by, and working on HIV, is set to open in Munich, Germany, and virtually from 22 to 26 July.
The opening session included a testimonial from Jay Mulucha, Fem Alliance Uganda Executive Director on the impact of Uganda’s 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act, which outlaws sexual relations among members of the same sex and imposes the death penalty to “serious homosexual acts”.
“In Uganda, despite there being rollbacks on some of the harsher policies under the Anti-Homosexuality Act, there remains a discrepancy between these changes in policies and what is being implemented on the ground. The violations are still happening, including denial of access to healthcare services and housing, despite the government claiming that this situation has changed,” Mulucha said.
“The sanctions and penalties being placed by the international community on the Ugandan government are working, but the lifting of these sanctions needs to be contingent not on policy changes but on evidence of changes in implementation. You need to listen to the communities and hear what we are saying. We are still suffering and need your support more than ever, so the funding that is being denied to the government should be funnelled directly into LGBTIQ organizations and communities in Uganda.”
Sharon Lewin, IAS President and AIDS 2024 International Co-Chair, said incredible breakthroughs at AIDS 2024 have been witnessed, including a new case of long-term HIV remission and a promising twice-yearly injection to prevent HIV,
“While these advances are cause to celebrate, science doesn’t happen in a vacuum. All around the world, regressive policies, attacks on human rights, the spread of misinformation, cuts to global health funding, and waning trust in international institutions are roadblocks to progress. To end HIV as a threat to public health and individual well-being, we need an evidence-based HIV response and a political climate that respects science.”
“Putting people first means that whether in the design of clinical trials or implementing new policies and programmes, people living with and affected by HIV must be not just beneficiaries but actors driving our efforts,” Lewin said.
Citing the 2023 UNAIDS Global AIDS update, titled The Urgency of Now, AIDS at a Crossroads, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima shared that despite global targets to reduce new HIV acquisitions to below 370,000 by 2025, the number remains more than three times higher, at 1.3 million new acquisitions in 2023.
“The new data UNAIDS released earlier today shows that success or failure will be determined by the actions taken this year,” Byanyima said. “We are calling on leaders to take three critical steps: Resource the response; get long-acting treatment and prevention options to all low- and middle-income countries; and break down the discrimination and stigma pushing the most marginalised people away from health care. We know the path that ends AIDS but we have no time to wait.”
Chris Collins, President and CEO of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, spoke about the critical role of disease-specific funding programmes in the current political environment.
“For over 20 years, American leaders across political parties have come together, recognizing the critical need to end the AIDS epidemic. Misinformation held up the five-year reauthorization of PEPFAR this year, but a bipartisan commitment to the program remains solid in the United States,” said Collins.
“Lawmakers know that the Global Fund and PEPFAR are saving millions of lives and if we backtrack on our commitments on AIDS, TB and malaria, the immediate result would be disease resurgence and the squandered opportunity to end the most deadly infectious diseases.”