The 17th International AIDS conference

During the first week of August around 23,000 persons involved in different kinds of AIDS-related work worldwide, from persons living with HIV, AIDS activists, health and social workers, NGO workers, researchers and public health officials gathered in Mexico City for the 17th International AIDS Conference. The main aim was to inspire each other, share and learn, and build momentum towards achieving Universal access goals by 2010 and the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

From Norway, more than 20 different organisations participated in the conference. For the first time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Norad organised a joint booth for all the Norwegian organisations to show the diversity of the Norwegian AIDS response, both nationally and internationally, under the common slogan "Together against stigma and discrimination".

The UNAIDS 2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic points to significant progress in reducing new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths in the past two years. However, the conference underscored the fact that AIDS is not over yet in any part of the world. By maintaining the current pace of universal scale up, we will not reach universal access by 2010.

Thus, we will need to build on the new energy that was mobilised across stakeholders and a clearer agenda for linking up towards a more coherent and comprehensive response.

Some of the highlights:

Growing young leadership

HIV spreads mainly among young people, and young people must therefore be heavily involved in the response to the epidemic.

Since the Barcelona AIDS Conference in 2002, YouthForce, a coalition of youth and youth-serving organizations, has been coming together to ensure that youth issues and youth participation are well represented at the event. This time young people were much more visible as speakers all through the conference. There is also a good youth involvement in the initiative looking towards the future of AIDS, called AIDS 2031 (Where Norway is co-chairing one of 9 working groups).

Renewed focus on preventing new infections

"Combination prevention" is as necessary as "combination treatment" when it comes to stopping the HIV epidemic.

Finally the world has passed the 3 million mark for access to Antiretroviral Therapy. However, as two new persons get access to treatment, five more get infected. Much more energy is needed in prevention, and the conference saw a renewed commitment to comprehensive prevention. Biological, structural and behaviour interventions must be broadly implemented for a more effective response. There is also a growing acknowledgement that addressing gender and sexuality must be part of comprehensive prevention.

Meet the local challenges!

To prevent new infections, countries are encouraged to ‘know their epidemic‘, and to put their effort where the epidemic is spreading most rapidly, often among so-called vulnerable or marginalized groups.

For instance, less than one percent of total HIV spending in Latin America funds programs targeting men having sex with men (MSM). That is not good enough when more than 25 percent of people living with HIV are MSM and this is the most prominent mode of HIV transmission. In many countries discrimination and social taboo are hindering an effective HIV response.

Fight discrimination, don't criminalise!

Criminalisation is working against its purpose, and so are travel and entry restrictions.

UNAIDS in partnership with others presented 10 key reasons (see Edwin Cameron's ppt presentation) for why criminalising the transmission of the virus is working against its purpose. The UN General Secretary, Ban Ki-Moon called on all countries to live up to their commitments to enact or enforce legislation outlawing discrimination against the people living with HIV and members of vulnerable groups.

Better convergence between the AIDS community and the health and development community

One of the main achievements at the conference, I believe, was the convergence between the "AIDS community" and the "health and development community" in terms of ensuring better synergies, more effective spending and more sustainable results - without loosing focus on the commitment to universal access for prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010, says Sigrun Møgedal, Norway's ambassador for AIDS and Global Initiatives. Under this heading, Norway contributed in a session on HIV and Human Resources: Competing Priorities or Interconnected Solutions?

The next International AIDS conference will be held in Vienna, Austria in July 2010.