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DURBAN, South Africa – Familiar names appeared in person here to praise progress in the battle against HIV/AIDS achieved in the last 16 years, but also to call for new programs targeting groups on the margins of society – including injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, prison populations, and adolescents -- among whom infection rates remain high.
At a press conference at the International AIDS Conference, , secretary-general of the United Nations, noted that "for every one person receiving life-saving HIV treatment [in 2000] there are 17 people receiving treatment today" -- a total of 17 million now in treatment worldwide.
But Ban said that even so there are 20 million people today who do not have access to antiretroviral drugs and 13 million people do not have access to care. He said that the 2016 Durban meeting should initiate an "era of fast track response to treatment of HIV where we finish what we started. We must close the gaps that keep people from health services and living with dignity." He cited those groups of HIV patients who have been marginalized, stigmatized and criminalized by various government and societies: Gay and bisexual men, injecting drug users, sex workers, and prisoners.
Another group of individuals who rarely get included in studies – teenagers and adolescents – were championed by Academy Award-winning actress , a South Africa native whose aims at reaching that group at the community level. "I hope to be a voice for those young girls and boys who we have not paid attention to. We want to help these young people keep themselves safe from HIV," she said at the press conference.
She said that going to the community level "is the only way to reach those most vulnerable. The communities are where the people are living in the trenches; they are living this life. Until we get these people engaged we will just be maintaining HIV. We may find ourselves pushing this rock up the hill again. We are so close to pushing this epidemic over the edge.
"There needs to be more conversation about ending this epidemic instead of sustaining it or maintaining it," said Theron, who has been designated as a UN Messenger of Peace.
"Despite progress millions of people are being left behind," said press conference moderator , of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Medicine, Baltimore, and president of the International AIDS Society.
"More than 1 million people die of AIDS each year and another 2 million become newly infected with HIV. New infections among adults has stalled – failing to decline for the past 5 years. The human rights of those at greatest risk – gay and bisexual men, transgender people, people who inject drugs, sex workers, and prisoners – continue to be violated around the world. These populations represent more than a third of all new infections worldwide.
"This conference comes at a crucial time in the epidemic. To truly succeed in all places in all patients we must assure that each action we take is grounded in science and respects the human rights of all individuals. Delay is tantamount to defeat," Beyrer said.
, executive director of the UNAIDS, also warned that fight against the disease is at a critical juncture. "I am scared. We are again in difficult times – terrorism, migration, so many issues – and we are facing a decline in funding from so many donors," he said.
He predicted that if the world lets the progress stall or even slip behind, "we will lose our investment." Sidibe also said that governments have to increase their commitments to building a healthcare system that will need 1 million additional health care workers – including 200,000 in South Africa – to insure that the gains against the epidemic will be maintained.