“Emmanuel Macron can be the President of the Republic who will contribute to a world without AIDS”

Ahen we have all the necessary tools in terms of treatment and prevention and when a large part of the world has been able to form a united front against the Covid-19 epidemic, we have an unprecedented chance to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Since the creation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria twenty years ago, and the payment of donations by States, 23.3 million people have been able to access antiretroviral treatment for HIV, 70.8 million HIV tests have been carried out and 670,000 mothers are living with HIV. These mothers are currently on treatment to stay alive and prevent transmission of HIV to their child.

The Global Fund is clearly our best bet to end HIV in the world. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, and even if there had already been delays, things were on the right track. However, the health crisis has marked a real pause in the fight against AIDS, despite the efforts of the Global Fund and all actors in the field.

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A significant delay was added to the previous one. Whether in terms of discontinuity of treatment, precariousness of certain populations, partial or total absence of prevention, drop in screening, Covid-19 has had devastating effects on communities affected by AIDS, and first and foremost place, on women, sexual minorities and sex workers.

Intensify the culture of screening

While being held, until Wednesday, September 21, in New York, the 7^e replenishment conference of the Global Fund, during which States have a historic responsibility to collectively put an end to AIDS, France must increase its contribution and continue to set an example. Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic, can, if he has the will, put an end to AIDS in France by 2027: all the tools (screening tests, treatments and PrEP) are at his disposal. And the whole world, thanks to the Global Fund, can end it by 2030.

If the health crisis has certainly lost precious time, it has also shown us that it is possible for States to fight effectively against a pandemic. The screening culture, which is one of the keys to any end of the epidemic and which was implemented during the worst moments of the Covid-19 crisis, must be presented in the same way to the population and promoted in a similar by governments in the case of AIDS.

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