Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD, center) sits at the opening of the 25th World AIDS Conference between Birgit Poniatowski (left), Director General of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and Sharon Lewin (right), President of the International AIDS Society. /image alliance, Karl-Josef Hildenbrand
Munich – The global community must work together towards the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) called for this today at the opening event of the 25th World AIDS Conference (AIDS2024) about.
The Chancellor assured that Germany would continue to support the efforts. At the same time, Scholz called on other donor countries to provide even more financial support. In particular, the World Health Organization (WHO) need even more international support.
A global strategy against HIV and AIDS must involve more research, better prevention, patient-centered education and information, as well as a determined fight against discrimination, Scholz said.
This week, the Bavarian capital Munich will host the world’s largest scientific meeting to combat the AIDS pathogen, HIV. More than 10,000 participants are expected to attend the conference.
By Friday, doctors, health experts and activists from more than 175 countries want to attend at the invitation of the International AIDS Society (IAS) advise on how the pathogen HIV and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS can be further contained. The meeting is being held in Germany for the first time in three decades: the experts met in Berlin in 1993.
Christoph Spinner, infectious disease specialist and senior physician at the Rechts der Isar Clinic, emphasized that we have come a long way in the fight against HIV. In his opinion, the conference will be a valuable platform to discuss achievements, but also current challenges. For example, Bavaria could learn from others that preventive services also make sense to include safe rooms for drug consumption.
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One topic of the conference is pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). When taken correctly, appropriate medications can prevent infections, for example. However, these are not accessible in many parts of the world and are often still unknown in Europe, except for gay and bisexual men.
A vaginal ring is used in some African countries. It is made of silicone and inserted into the vagina. There it releases an antiretroviral agent.
Africa’s hopes also rest on injectable drugs to protect against infections, which only need to be administered every two to six months. New studies on this and many other topics will be presented at the conference.
Numerous organisations and representatives from different communities are coming together at the Global Village as part of the World AIDS Congress. This part of the congress is open to the public and aims to bring together people concerned about HIV and AIDS beyond the scientific debate. They are united in the fight against the spread of the virus, but also against stigmatisation and discrimination.
“It’s about creating a lively place for exchange and bringing the topic to life,” said Tobias Weismantel, managing director of the Munich AIDS Center and co-chair of the Global Village. “HIV is a global problem. It can only be solved if we work together across the world.
The number of deaths has been reduced by less than a third since 2004, when around two million people died worldwide as a result of AIDS. However, according to figures from the United Nations Programme to Combat HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) Currently, one person suffers from the consequences of AIDS every minute. Infections are rising again, especially in Eastern Europe; in Africa, they remain high, despite great progress in the fight against HIV.
According to UNAIDS, nearly 40 million people worldwide were living with the virus in 2022, and about a quarter – 9.2 million – had no or insufficient access to therapies. Ahead of the official opening of the conference, UNAIDS plans to report the numbers of new infections and deaths in the morning. Publish in 2023one of the focuses – as at the conference – will be to look at Eastern Europe. © dpa/aha/aerzteblatt.de