AIDS Congress in Vienna: politicians under pressure - where is the help?

AIDS Congress in Vienna: politicians under pressure - where is the help?

In view of the impending withdrawal of the United States from global measures against HIV/AIDS, progress in recent decades is in danger, as current reports show. "It is a serious violation of human rights and ethically and epidemiologically irresponsible to withhold people with life -saving therapy," warned Prof. Dr. Stefan Esser, Chairman of the German AIDS Society. In fact, millions of lives could be at stake if no alternative sources of financing are found to secure the progress that have already been won, as also report the AIDS Aid Vienna.

The USA has been decisive for the containment of the epidemic with its Pepper (the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) for years and financed essential therapies for around 20 million people worldwide. The announced withdrawal from this program means that numerous institutions that provide HIV diagnostics and therapies, to have to go. According to UNAIDS, this could lead to nine million new HIV infections and over six million AIDS deaths by 2029. "We cannot simply see that mass extinction begins again," Roger Vogelmann from the German Working Group for Infectious Diseases.

appeal for immediate intervention

The reason of the urgency appeal is the upcoming German-Austrian AIDS Congress, which takes place in Vienna, where experts meet to discuss strategies for combating HIV. In view of the current crisis, a clear call to solidarity and responsibility is required. "People to deprive HIV therapy will end in a humanitarian disaster, if not acted immediately," emphasizes Stefan Miller from the German Aidshilfe. A new commitment and improved global coordination are urgently needed.

statistics show that over 35 million people have died of AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic; The numbers are increasing continuously. Only the first treatment rate shows a positive trend: in 2015, 46 percent of HIV-positive people received anti-retroviral therapy. Nevertheless, the future of this treatment could be seriously threatened due to the withdrawal of sources of financing, which could have catastrophic consequences for the affected regions, especially in East and South Africa, where more than half of the HIV-positive people live, according to the analysis from the Federal Center for Political Education.