Winnie Byanyima, the UNAIDS Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General, praised Thailand’s efforts to promote area conservation in its Aids reaction, encouraging other nations to adopt this approach.
Ms. Byanyima told the Bangkok Post in an exclusive interview at the 25th UNAIDS 2024 conference that the Thai government has been working very well with people living with HIV ( PLHIV ).
” The Thai authorities is collaborating closely with local governments to provide health care to HIV-positive folks.” Thailand does this very well”, she said.
Additionally, Thailand’s laws and procedures are effective in encouraging those who have HIV to seek out therapy. For instance, the state does not criminalize people who are gay.
Primary healthcare is accessible to everyone without having to pay anything, and HIV care and services are related to major care.
” The Thai model]in providing healthcare services and treatment ] is a good practice. We’ve encouraged different places to learn from Thailand’s reaction to HIV”, she said.
Ms. Byanyima claimed that communities in Thailand that work with HIV-positive people are a key component of the victory because they have provided PLHIV with free of charge service.
She claimed that UNAIDS has enlisted Thai officials and specialists who are working with areas and people living with HIV to spread their information internationally in an effort to promote other nations to adopt the Thai design.
Thailand is on track to fulfill the testing and treatment goals set out in the 1995-95-95 International AIDS Strategy by 2025, according to UNAIDS.
The declaration calls on member states to ensure that 95 % of PLHIV know their HIV status, 95 % of people who know their status are receiving HIV treatment, and 95 % of people on treatment are virally suppressed.
By the end of 2022, an estimated 90 % of PLHIV were aware of their status. An impressive 97 % of those on treatment achieved a suppressed viral load, and 90 percent of the recognized persons were on treatment.
In accordance with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, Thailand is totally committed to putting an end to the risk of people health.
The state is globally recognised for its “peer-to-peer” strategy, initiated in 1996. PLHIVs can help one another using this platform.
This program has grown into a system encompassing area, municipal, and national rates, evolving into what is now known as the” Comprehensive Care Center” (CCC).
Now, there are about 219 such CCC networks globally.
Close stigma, discrimination
But, Ms. Byanyima continued to express her concern for the stigma and discrimination against PLHIV until these individuals refused to participate in hospital and clinic prevention and treatment.
But UNAIDS put HIV service in the hands of communities. That’s why the position of area is essential.
” We continue to observe a pretty strong stigma against those who have HIV,” says the group. Everyday I go, I see people who have received]HIV] therapy for 20 years also facing bias and stigmatisation from their populations.
So that’s why people who have HIV value security and protection so much. People who have HIV are being turned away from lifesaving companies, according to her.
Thus we created an indicator to measure stigmatization and discrimination related to HIV, and we have done so. We encouraged countries to use it to tackle discrimination, mainly in health security.”
Ms. Byanyima is urging officials all over the world to put an end to prejudice and discrimination against PLHIV.
In some developing nations, she is concerned about human rights violations committed against marginalized people, such as men having sex with men ( MSM).
She said,” These people are being hunted down because they are queer.”
We organized people to protect their freedoms. They may work together to protect their rights, particularly in nations where these people are targeted. We are now supporting areas to assist these individuals in battling their own right and challenging themselves, she said.
The pandemic’s close
A fresh UNAIDS document, which suggests the Aids crisis might be managed by 2030, was discussed by Ms Byanyima. The statement was launched at the 25th UNAIDS 2024 event.
According to the new report, the universe is in a critical position if world leaders are to fulfill their responsibility to eradicate Aid by 2030.
The report,” The Necessity of Now: Helps at a Crossroads,” provides fresh statistics and case studies that demonstrate that millions of lives will be impacted by decisions made this year.
By 2050, the number of PLHIV patients who require life-long treatment will stabilize to around 29 million if leaders take the bold steps needed today to ensure adequate and sustainable resourcing and guard everyone’s animal rights.
But if they take the bad way, that exact group of people needing life-long aid will fall to 46 million.
According to Ms Byanyima,” World leaders pledged to stop the Aids crisis as a public health threat by 2030, and they can defend their promise, but only if they make sure that the HIV response has the tools it needs and that everyone’s individual rights are protected.”
” We had 1.3 fresh million infections last year worldwide, but the goal for 2025 leaders pledged to lower monthly new infections to below 370, 000. Particularly in provinces like Eastern Europe and Central Asia, we need to move more quickly. She said that while we need to discover new pathogens disappear, they are now increasing.
More than 10, 000 members are attending UNAIDS 2024, the 25th International Aids Conference, the nation’s largest gathering of people living with, affected by, and working on HIV, taking place in person in Munich, Germany, and even nearly under a style of” putting people initial”.