UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UNAIDS - Press Conference: Launch of World AIDS Day Report 2024

UNAIDS - Press Conference: Launch of World AIDS Day Report 2024

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26-11-2024

Press Conferences , Edited News | UNAIDS

UNAIDS - Press Conference: Launch of World AIDS Day Report 2024

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Shotlist Story

Source: UNTV CH

Restrictions: NONE

Language: English/French/NATS

Dateline: 27 November 2024 Geneva, Switzerland

TRT: 3:06

Speakers:

Christine Stegling, Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS
Axel Bautista, Community Engagement Manager, MPact, Mexico City
Alexandra Calmy, Head of HIV Services, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland
Jeanne Gapiya-Niyonzima, Chair of the National Association for Support for HIV+ people living with AIDS, Burundi
Berthilde Gahongayire, Regional Director, West and Central Africa region, UNAIDS

SHOTLIST

Wide UN Geneva Press Room with panellists
Moderator (wearing red ribbon) speaking with panellists
Christine Stegling holding up report
SOT (English) -- Christine Stegling, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS
“We have come so far in the HIV response. Progress has been driven by biomedical advances, and advances in the protection of human rights and by community activism but big gaps remain in the protection of human rights and these gaps are keeping the world from getting on the path that ends AIDS.”
CU Photographer, Medium-wide press room, two photographers
SOT (French) Alexandra Calmy, Head of HIV Services, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland “L’année 2024 a été marquée par une véritable révolution dans le domaine de la prévention du VIH. Je pèse mes mots : une révolution, comparable à celle que nous avons connue en 1996 avec l’avènement des trithérapies. Des études ont en effet démontré que deux injections annuelles (lenacapavir) permettent de protéger presque entièrement une population de jeunes femmes particulièrement à risque d’acquisition du VIH en Afrique subsaharienne. Cette avancée est remarquable dans un domaine où aucun vaccin n’est actuellement disponible, et où aucun vaccin ne semble prêt à l’être dans les cinq prochaines années. Cette révolution dans la prévention mérite d’être saluée et accompagnée, afin qu’elle soit rendue accessible et disponible dans les meilleurs délais pour les populations concernées.” English translation: “The year 2024 has been marked by a true revolution in HIV prevention. I weigh my words carefully: a revolution, comparable to the breakthrough of combination therapies in 1996. Indeed, studies have shown that two annual injections (lenacapavir) can almost completely protect a population of young women at high risk of acquiring HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. This advancement is remarkable in a field where no vaccine is currently available and none is expected to be ready in the next five years. This revolution in prevention deserves to be celebrated and supported so that it can be made accessible and available as quickly as possible to vulnerable populations.”
Wide Panellists with Alexandra Calmy in monitors
Axel Bautista, Community Engagement Manager, MPact, Mexico City (English) “In 63 countries same sexual relations are criminalized. People living with HIV continue to be criminalized. Criminalization exacerbates fear, persecution, hate, violence and discrimination and it has a negative impact on public health. Queer people are left vulnerable, at increased risk, feeling isolated and excluded. Criminalization means more people will be in danger and more lives will end. We cannot end HIV unless we end criminalization.”
Axel finishing and leaving podium
Jeanne Gapiya-Niyonzima, Chair of the National Association for Support for HIV+ people living with AIDS, Burundi (French) “Lorsque Guy Bertrand, mon bébé, a été (en 1986), diagnostiqué séropositif, le médecin l’a chassé de l’hôpital pour aller mourir à la maison. Il fallait qu’il libère la place pour d’autres enfants qui pouvaient être sauvés. Plus tard un autre médecin, sans mon consentement, m’a enlevé l’utérus ... j’ai eu l’impression qu’on m’a volé ma féminité à l'âge tendre de 25 ans. On peut terminer, on peut en finir avec le VIH mais la voie royale pour y arriver ça sera la voie des droits.” English translation: “When my baby, Guy Bertrand was diagnosed with HIV (in 1986), the doctor chased him away from the hospital to die at home. He wanted to free up space to make room for other kids who could be treated. Aftewards another doctor took out my uterus at the tender age of 25. I felt robbed of my femininity. We can end AIDS, finish it but there is only one way and this is by respecting human rights.” Editor’s note: In 1986, there was no HIV treatment thus a person born or living with HIV had no way to live a long and healthy life. Currently, when an HIV+ woman takes her antiretroviral medicine, she can give birth to an HIV- baby (she will not transmit the virus during pregnancy, or breastfeeding.)

Wide panellists, Moderator thanking Jeanne
Wide press conference room

Respect for everyone's human rights is essential to ending HIV, says UNAIDS

Despite huge progress, the world is not yet on track to end AIDS as a public health threat, the UN agency said on Tuesday. Of the 39.9 million people living with HIV, 9.3 million people are still not accessing life-saving treatment. Last year, 630 000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses, and 1.3 million people around the world newly acquired HIV. In at least 28 countries, the number of new HIV infections is on the rise. To bring down the trajectory of the pandemic, it is imperative that lifesaving programmes can be reached without fear by all who need them.

When girls are denied education; when there is impunity for gender-based violence; when people can be arrested for who they are, or who they love; when a visit to health services is dangerous for people because of the community they are from—the result is that people are blocked from being able to access HIV services that are essential to save their lives and to end the AIDS pandemic. To protect everyone’s health, we need to protect everyone’s rights.

Science continues to innovate against AIDS. Long-acting medicines that only need to be injected a few times a year could tip the scales but only if a human rights approach is taken to share the technology to bring down prices and enable production in every part of the world.

UNAIDS new report brings together the latest research, case studies, and recommendations for getting the world on track. It includes guest essays by Elton John, by Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba, by Irish President Michael D. Higgins, by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, and by former President of the International AIDS Society Adeeba Kamarulzaman amongst others. It provides a clear roadmap: Take the rights path to end AIDS.

Teleprompter

Thank you for joining this live and virtual press conference as we launch UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report 2024.

Take the Rights Path to End AIDS.

Thank you for joining for this event.

This report shows that upholding human rights is essential for ending the AIDS pandemic.

It includes 10 guest essays from leaders in the global AIDS response, including Elton John, the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makoba, the Irish President, Michael D Higgins, the United Nations **** Commissioner for Human Rights, Volcker Turk, and former President of the International AIDS Society Adiba Kamaruzuman.

And it also includes an essay from Jan, who we will hear from as a panellist today.

If you haven't already received them, you can find all the supporting materials, including the report, the press release, the figures, the fact sheets, B roll and more on UNAIDS website.

And if there's any help that you need, you contact us and we will ensure that you have everything you need in order to cover this report.

And with that, I'll hand over to UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Christine Stegling to launch this year's World AIDS Day report.

[Other language spoken]

And let me hold up the report to start with so you can all have a look about the at the report that we're launching this morning.

And let me just thank you all for coming, especially to our distinguished speakers who with their testimonies and their lived experiences, will bring live to this very report today.

So the theme of this year's reports, Take the Rights Path to End AIDS, flows from the understanding that we have a real chance of ending AIDS as a public health ****** by 20-30 if and when everyone's rights are protected.

We have come so far in the HIV response.

Progress has been driven by biomedical advances, advances, advances in the protection of human rights and by community activism.

But big gaps in the protection of human rights remain.

And these gaps are keeping the world from getting on the path that ends AIDS.

In July this year, we published the latest data for 2023.

And that data is sobering.

1.3 million people around the world newly acquired HIV, three times more than the global target set for 2025 of no more than 370,000 new HIV infections in a year.

Of the almost 40 million people living with HIV, 9.3 million people are still not accessing lifesaving treatment and last year alone, 630,000 people died of AIDS.

In at least 28 countries.

The number of new HIV infections is on the rise.

To bring down the trajectory of new HIV infections and of AIDS related death, it is imperative that life saving HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care can be reached without fear by all who need them, no matter who they are and where they live.

But when girls are denied education, when there is impunity for gender based violence and when people can be arrested for who they are or who they love, the result is that people are blocked from care.

This drives the AIDS pandemic.

Laws and policies and practises that punish, discriminate against or stigmatise people, obstruct them from HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care.

And so too do policies and practises that block communities and peer counsellors from doing HIV outreach or advocating for reforms.

So today, as UNAIDS, we call on leaders to remove discriminatory laws that violate human rights, to resource community LED responses to protect human rights, and to take a human rights approach to enable access to medical innovations for people in every region of the world.

The AIDS response is at a crossroads.

Upholding the human rights of everyone is the path that end AIDS.

And we start.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you so much, Christine.

And next we're going to hear from Jane Gapia Nyonzima, who is an activist from Burundi and a champion for people living with and affected by HIV.

Jane was the first person to publicly declare their HIV status in Burundi.

Jane, over to you.

Mercy Ben Marie Volt, a tanker mayor, a Macaulay revelation, did what the person.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you so much, John, for your powerful testimony.

You embody the very best of the AIDS movement.

Thank you for your work.

Our next speaker is the head of the HIV and AIDS Unit at Geneva University Hospitals, Professor Alexandra Kalmi.

Professor, you've just chaired the AIDS Conference in Glasgow and we're keen to hear from you about the most pressing issues from there and how they connect with the issues in this report.

[Other language spoken]

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Thank you so much, Professor Kalmi.

And now we will hear from Axel Bautista, who is community engagement Manager from Impact Global Action and who is based in Mexico City.

[Other language spoken]

It's an honour to be part of this press conference.

I am a proud HIV positive gay Mexican part of MPAC Global Action advancing queer Health and Human rights around the world.

My experience as an HIV positive activist in Mexico and my work at MPAC have helped me to have a deeper understanding of the importance and the urgency of addressing human rights, especially in my queer community.

In 63 countries, same sex sexual relations are criminalised.

People living with HIV continue to be criminalised.

Criminalization exacerbates fear, persecution, hate, violence and discrimination and has a negative impact on public health where people are left vulnerable, at increased risk, feeling isolated and excluded.

Criminalization means more people will be in danger and more lives will end.

We cannot end HIV unless we end criminalization.

Likewise, queer migrants continue to be genetically vulnerable around the globe.

Queer people in danger simply cannot stay where they are.

They have the basic human right to move to a place where they can find healthcare equality and where their rights will be respected.

No one, regardless of where they were born, should be denied the right to healthcare.

As an activist, I've learned to use my voice to demand my rights to change narratives about what it means to be gay and live with HIV, about what it means to have the right to enjoy sex, express myself, and be visible.

Today I say to the world, people living with HIV, queer people living with HIV have value and are here.

We can learn many vital lessons from HIV and quit.

Activism such as rights must be demanded, invested in communities is crucial and we cannot fight the stigma and discrimination without putting our needs, our issues and our bodies at the front.

We need to retake the power that has been taken from us, which is the power and the pleasure of being proud of ourselves.

We need to be more open about sex, sexuality, pleasure, and identity.

And we need to change and challenge the narratives about living with HIV.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you so much, Axel, for your powerful testimony.

We're going to move to a questions period now.

And so we're swapping Bathilda for Axel.

Bathilda is the West Africa Regional West and Central Africa Regional Director for UN AIDS, and she's joining because we have on the line colleagues from the media from West and Central Africa who are particularly interested in learning more.

And so Bathilda will help answering questions on that.

Axel is available to be interviewed in English or Spanish after this event.

So please do link with us if you'd like to interview Axel in English or Spanish.

And we can also provide for you the English translations of what you heard from Jan and what you heard from Professor Kalmi.

So if you need the English translations of those, we can provide those for you.

Please get in touch with us afterwards.

And then for this part of the questions, you can ask questions in either English or French.

I understand that we have colleagues on the line, and so I want to open that up and create availability for people online.

I'm going to start with online, then I'm going to go to the room.

[Other language spoken]

And here's someone who wants to ask a question from online.

[Other language spoken]

I understood that we might have somewhere from quotidian, not revoir and also from at the end say.

If we do, please let us know and we'll be happy to take your questions.

[Other language spoken]

If we don't, we had some questions sent, so we will pass those to, to Bathilda.

I think you're aware of two questions that have been sent Bathilda.

Is that right?

[Other language spoken]

So do you want to share the, the, the questions or I can read the questions in my bad French and you answer.

I shall have a go in French and apologies to the French language.

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Do we have a question Yes, please go ahead.

[Other language spoken]

I am Antonio Rotto, I work for FA Spanish news agency.

I would like to ask with the current trends positive but maybe not positive enough, what is the most realistic scenario for the 2030 goals in terms of decrease of VIH and AIDS cases?

What can we expect?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for for bringing this question.

So I think the the question is about the most realistic scenario.

And as we have been saying for the last few months, when we when we issued our data report in July, we said, look, we had a crossroads.

We know what works, we can go to this way and we will reach the 2025 targets.

In fact, we have a number of countries who can reach those targets, but if we're not making the right political, financial and programmatic choices, we will not reach those targets.

So the realism, I think the realistic trajectory depends on the world, community and national governments on whether or not they will invest and whether or not they will invest into the right programmes.

As Doctor Kalmi has said, we have, we have innovations that could actually be a game changer.

As she said, it might be the 1996 moment when treatment entered our world.

But as we're saying with this report today, those game changes will really only get us to the right reduction in new infections when we make sure that everybody will have access to them.

And that is because they're available and accessible, available in terms of price, but also accessible in terms of people coming forward.

So I can't give you a realistic, realistic scenario on the current trend.

When we continue the way we are now, we will not reach our targets and we will end up with a much, much higher number of people living with HIV by, you know, long after 2030, by 2050 that we will all collectively have to be responsible for and need to take care of.

Thank you so much for your question.

Any other questions from the room or online?

[Other language spoken]

I see that we have a question online from Constance Mananga from Arte en Say.

[Other language spoken]

Are we able to open the mic for Constance?

[Other language spoken]

I think we might have lost Constance.

Constance, we will find a way that you can send in a question or others who've had trouble with the access.

We will find a way to get to you.

[Other language spoken]

Madam Brief, my question is to for Doctor Kami, I would like to know a little bit about the question of CRISPR, the gene editing technologies that are already being tested for several years and you mentioned that they need to be widely available.

What are the barriers for achieving that goal of having more wide distribution of gene editing tools?

Because this, it seems like it is what it would make HIV an illness of the past, right?

Professor Kami, thank you very much.

So you're asking the question first about cure research.

And I think that the CRISPR is probably not the only one or the best approach for cure research.

Cure research is at the forefront right now.

There are 7 cured patients right now.

One of them, the Geneva patient is not, has not been transplanted with cells with the harbouring the delta 32 mutations.

So we are not absolutely sure that the crisp approach is the only one.

What we can see right now is that there is about 40 or 50 trials for cure and the number of those trial including crisp is not the crisp is not the main pass for the cure trial right now.

So to answer shortly your question, I would say yes, the cure research is active, but no, I'm not sure the crisp is the only or the best pass for the cure research right now.

So having said that, I think it is important to mention that the cure research has mostly is mostly in the early phase of development, Phase 2 really in phase three trials.

So we are not quite there right now and there are some questions, very important question that we have to ask ourselves about cure trials is whether how are we going to stop treatment for patients, What does it mean to stop treatment, What does it mean to restart treatment if something happened.

So we are not quite there that we have answered all the ethical questions around the cure trial.

So it is an important path for HIV research.

But today there are a lot of unanswered question for the cure trials.

[Other language spoken]

And Professor Comedy perhaps if you could add, because in terms of technology, whilst we are somewhere, somewhere to go in terms of a cure or a vaccine there, there is a change because of the long acting injectables, there is a change in prevention that Prep would not need to be once a day, it could be twice a year.

This, if it's available to everybody, could open up opportunities for prevention that they haven't been before.

So that's the technology that's really exciting, that's revolutionary and that is there now and we know works.

Could you share a bit more about that technological breakthrough and, and how you think we can help bring that to the world?

[Other language spoken]

So what is important to say that this new drug, the Lenacapavier is administered subcutaneously every six months.

So this is the revolution.

The drug can be used for treatment or for prevention.

In some countries it is available for treatment, such as in my country in Switzerland.

In some countries it will be available hopefully soon for prevention.

SO1 drug does not fit everything but it this drug may fit a lot of needs.

However, the reason why we are getting a lot of hope for prevention is that you only need one drug.

You don't need dual drug or triple drug or combination drug for prevention.

1 drug seems to work very well as it was shown in in this study.

The purpose one study recently at IAS 2024 in in Munich.

So for this reason, this is a revolution.

Some people may even say that are we going to really invest in research for vaccine because we have a drug that you can give twice yearly and will prevent you to get HIV.

So of course it is important to have this for prevention.

Does that fit all the needs?

[Other language spoken]

What I am sure, however, also for prevention is that we probably need more options.

More options means some people would prefer oral options, some people would want options every week, some other would want injectable as patch, Some, you know, there are many options and we don't have to stop after one drug.

I think it is also not wise from the research side to stop at one drug.

One drug would never fulfil the needs for the whole planet.

So I think this is quite clear.

And in addition of that for treatment.

So this is very interesting to have a drug that you can provide every six months for treatment, but you need to have companion drug.

And right now, at the moment, right now 2024, we don't have companion drug for this drug to be administered every six months.

So they are still quite a way to have to fulfil our expectations and options for that.

Everyone get the option she feels the most comfortable with.

And I think this is the work of research.

Sometimes I hear, OK, now you have this, this is fine.

[Other language spoken]

And I think we will never stop unless we have everyone having the right option for him or for herself.

Thank you so much Christine.

Would you like to add any reflection on that?

No, I think, I think I can only agree and and I think, you know, we need to and that's why I said it very carefully to the previous question.

You know, it could be a breakthrough.

It could be that moment that we had in 1996 when treatment was available for everybody.

But we also have learned over time that it is really important as doctor calmly says that not everybody is the same, that we need to bring people choices, especially in prevention.

We also have the vaginal ring.

We also have tried and tested prevention methods that work, which are is condom and in many parts of the world we have done very poorly providing condoms to people.

It could do a lot better with that.

So I think the, the, the important bit here is around options and choice.

And I think, you know, there are other interesting ways of combining these options, right?

Family planning, for example, with HIV prevention.

We know that it's very interesting for many women in the world.

And so I hope we are not shopping here, but really develop the best possible, what you call it, area of, of, of options for people and especially allowing people to make choices and not thinking that one, one solution fits all.

[Other language spoken]

We have a question online from Maya Plants.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, thank you for taking my question.

It is a follow up regarding the CRISPR gene editing technologies.

We, if I understand well, there is a patient that has been so-called cured right from the disease and it's just one patient here in Geneva in the hospital.

[Other language spoken]

Professor, call me and the executive director also.

[Other language spoken]

First call me.

Yeah, I think you apologise if I wasn't very clear.

So we have a cured patient in Geneva, but this patient was not cured because of the crisp technology.

This patient was cured because he had medulla transplant and during this transplant he receive round the transplant, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and the graft transplant and after that he two years after that he stopped antiretroviral treatment in November 16th of November 2021 and now we are three years of treatment.

The publication was done in September 2024.

And so this patient is the first one to be considered cured while he received a graft transplant which was not including the delta 32 mutations.

And the reason why I'm talking about the Delta 32 mutation is that the six other patient who are considered to be cured in the world have all received this specific graft where there was this Delta 32 mutation.

This Delta 32 mutation prevents you to acquire the HIV because it you lose the the key to open the cells to acquire HIV.

So the Geneva patient is the only one who had the key to acquire HIV but did not rebound his viremia after he stopped anti retrieval therapy in November 2021.

For this reason it is a very special case.

But still today we consider there are only 7 cured patient worldwide, which is far from what we would like.

What what's the hope he's here is that we will find interventions who allow patients to either be in remission for sometimes without treatment, without antiviral treatment or for a very long time, which we would consider them to be cured from HIV.

[Other language spoken]

Do we have any other questions online or in the room?

[Other language spoken]

If not, I want to invite you all to to watch from 3:30 European time.

[Other language spoken]

We will be launching the report in the Kofi Annan Room of UN AIDS and as well as the panellists that you've met today, we will have interventions from Doctor Tedros, from Volka Turk, from Winnie Biannima, from other community activists, also from diplomats from five countries.

And we will conclude with a poetry recital by a Nigerian feminist spoken word poet, Hafi.

So we invite you to join all of those and we can provide details for everybody here in order to be able to watch that online.

And if you need anything, if you have any questions, you want to do follow up interviews, you want facts and figures, you want other supporting materials, we are there to support you.

So ask us either in the room or by e-mail and we will get to you everything that you need.

Thank you so much for joining this event, and thank you for marking World AIDS Day and for sharing the important message that the end of AIDS as a public health ****** is possible if leaders follow the rights path.

[Other language spoken]