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This year’s World AIDS Day theme of ‘global solidarity, shared responsibility’ reminds us of the impact of pandemics on our lives and how we must unite to prevail.
Both HIV and COVID-19 are exposing and exacerbating inequalities. They show us once again that good health is about much more than just who can see a doctor; how health is interrelated with equality, human rights and social protection.
Just as the most marginalized and vulnerable bear a disproportionate burden of HIV, in almost all countries COVID-19 has impacted the poorest and most vulnerable communities at rates much higher than those that can afford to quarantine. People living with HIV, women, children, key populations, migrants and refugees are among those most likely to suffer devastating consequences.
Despite some notable progress in the AIDS response, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were not on track to meet the global AIDS targets agreed by Member States in 2016. COVID-19 now threatens to reverse this progress so hard achieved. The 2020 UNAIDS World AIDS Day report shows that the expansion of treatment has slowed and estimates that COVID-related interruptions could still cause between 123,000 and 293,000 additional HIV infections and between 69,000 and 148,000 AIDS-related deaths. . We need to act urgently to protect achievements and scale up efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
To do this, we need to “connect the dots“ between responses to HIV and COVID-19. The AIDS movement, led by people living with HIV and their allies, has fueled one of the most extraordinary global public health responses in history. We have learned from HIV about the importance of equitable access, innovation and the need to focus on those left behind and reach those furthest behind. We must apply these lessons in our efforts to address COVID-19. Similarly, we must capitalize on the innovations driven by the COVID-19 crisis and ensure that responses to HIV remain resilient in the face of other future pandemics and health threats.
UNDP is working with partners to help countries ensure the continuity of HIV services during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS, its partnership with the Global Fund and as technical leader of the United Nations framework for social and economic response to COVID-19. UNDP has supported 140 countries in obtaining supplies to ensure continuity of health services and has provided specific support for the continuity and adaptation of HIV services in 55 countries, including ensuring continued access to HIV services .
In facing both pandemics, we have a unique opportunity. As we’ve seen this year, when faced with a crisis, governments, scientists, and communities are capable of amazing things. To better advance from COVID-19, we need a systems approach driven by equity and sustainability. We should seize the moment to turn the crisis into a tipping point for universal health coverage. We need to expand HIV and basic services while advancing gender equality and reforming laws and policies that increase risk and stigma and lead to infections and disempowerment.
This World AIDS Day, UNDP calls for rethinking human development, with the Sustainable Development Goals and the commitment to leave no one behind as our compass. At a time when COVID-19 dominates all discourse, we must reinvigorate our efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, an SDG goal that is still within reach with renewed political will, global solidarity. and shared responsibility.
