Eradicating HIV/AIDS by 2030 is possible. But what does it take to be successful?
In its Global Strategy for the Fight once morest HIV/AIDS 2021-2026, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) presents clear objectives in order to eradicate the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030: ‘by the end of 2025, 95% of people living with HIV know their status, 95% of those people are in care and taking treatment, and 95% of people on treatment have an undetectable HIV viral load.
Remember that an undetectable viral load makes HIV untransmissible (yes, undetectable = untransmissible!). We fix our eyes on these objectives since they are achievable if adequate human and financial resources are deployed. Only in this way will it be possible to eradicate HIV/AIDS.
Support needed
To ensure the achievement of these objectives in Quebec, it is essential that the community, political, scientific and financial sectors rally together. For several years, we have unfortunately witnessed a disengagement and a lack of concrete support from our political decision-makers. Despite the major constraints resulting from this demobilization and, more recently, from the health crisis due to COVID-19, the community organization fighting HIV/AIDS in Quebec (nearly 40 organizations!) has continued and continues to offer its prevention, support, accompaniment and care programs. However, for our actions to be sustainable and for us to be able to eradicate HIV/AIDS by 2030, it is imperative that public authorities make a concrete commitment to support this fight through a concerted strategy with our community.
Five goals
Noting the absence of this commitment and the urgency to act, the community sector, under the coordination of the Coalition of Quebec Community Organizations for the Fight once morest AIDS (COCQ-SIDA), took the initiative to launch the Community Response Québec to HIV/AIDS 2021-2025. This includes five main objectives:
- Improve access to screening for HIV and all sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs);
- Support adherence to treatment for HIV and all STBBIs;
- Pursue risk and harm reduction efforts by deploying services adapted to the needs of key individuals and populations;
- Act on the social determinants of health by creating favorable environments;
- Develop intersectoral partnerships.
To achieve these objectives, we want a formal and concrete commitment from the various levels of government.
Thus, on the occasion of the 24e International AIDS Conference to be held in Montreal from July 29 to August 2, we, COCQ-SIDA, its member organizations and the Quebec AIDS Foundation, are calling on the Government of Canada to announce an increase in the dedicated budget to $100 million annually, as recommended by the Standing Committee on Health of the House of Commons of Canada in 2019, and to ensure the implementation of a concerted national strategy specific to HIV/AIDS.
As for the Government of Quebec, we are asking it to create a working committee to develop a concerted strategy by World AIDS Day, the 1is December 2022.
It is through these actions that we can finally eradicate HIV/AIDS by 2030.
Main signatories:
Mr. Guy Gagnon, President of COCQ-SIDA,
Mme Fatoumata Fofana, president of the Quebec AIDS Foundation,
Dr Jean Robert, founder of the Clinique du Dispensaire, specialist in microbiology, infectiology and community health,
Dr Réjean Thomas, President and CEO and founder of the L’Actuel clinic on behalf of the 34 members of the Coalition of Quebec Community Organizations in the Fight Against AIDS
