Devex: Opinion: Communities together — accelerating uptake of promising new HIV/AIDS medicines
Nagesh Borse, acting director for the HIV/AIDS task order on GHSC-PSM

“…Critical to the global HIV/AIDS community’s efforts is ensuring people living with HIV have access to the latest antiretroviral drugs that effectively suppress viral load. … We need to get better — and faster — at bringing new treatment regimens to the patients who need them. … To do so, health stakeholders must work together at the global, national, and health facility levels to prepare, coordinate, communicate, and achieve successful — yet complex — treatment transitions. Supply-chain stakeholders can help manage this process … It is only by being prepared and working together that we can hope to eradicate the AIDS epidemic and other diseases for good” (12/2).

Global Health NOW: We Can Beat AIDS with Youth in the Lead
Maureen Luba Milambe, Africa region advocacy adviser for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), a Women in Global Health LEAD fellow, and a visiting scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Charles Holmes, faculty co-director at the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact and professor of medicine at Georgetown University

“The future of global HIV response must be very different from today’s efforts. It must be youth focused and youth led. … Transformative, multisectoral change that takes HIV prevention out of isolation and incorporates youth into every layer of global and domestic decision-making is needed. … [W]e cannot be serious about fighting HIV in youth if our policies have the effect of restricting access to family planning. Creating transformative avenues to listen to youth at every level of government, breaking down barriers to win-win pathways to careers in community health care, and integrating HIV prevention with family planning and other services are the next steps in ending AIDS…” (12/1).

Devex: Opinion: We won’t meet the 2020 AIDS targets. Now what?
Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC

“…2020 is the deadline that UNAIDS set for reducing new HIV infections to fewer than 500,000 worldwide. However, in 2018 alone, 1.7 million people became newly infected with HIV. It is time — in fact, well past time — to redouble efforts and investments in HIV prevention. The need is clear. … Without prevention that fits into the lives of young people living with and at risk of HIV, there will be no end to epidemic levels of new infections. The good news is there are energized, committed new leaders in this fight: 2020 is the year of diverse, brave activist leadership in HIV — from the grassroots to Geneva. … The appointment this year of UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima gives us significant hope. … We urge Ms. Byanyima to continue to stand strong as an activist leader — brave, clear, and unwavering in her commitment to the populations in greatest need of attention…” (12/3).