Deputy Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla. Picture: Timothy Bernard/ Independent Newspapers
Durban — Friday’s 25th International Aids Conference, in Munich, Germany, is arguably one of those most critical ones and a time for countries to reflect on what they are doing to reduce Aids-related deaths to below 250 000 by December 2025.
SA National Aids Council (Sanac) spokesperson Nelson Dlamini made the remark and called for increased effort and scaling up interventions to make certain everyone has a good story to tell beyond 2030. The conference is every two years and brings together about 10 000 people from 130 countries who are committed to ending the Aids epidemic.
Dlamini regards South Africa as “a big player” at this conference.
“The good story to tell beyond 2030 begins with us. We need to have our epidemic under control. We do have the largest treatment programme in the world, matching the size of our burden, or progressive policies such as the National Human Rights Plan, national prevention plan, particularly for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), and HIV national sex worker plan,” he said.
Dlamini said they are working with sectors and authorities to ensure those LGBTQI+ communities are not alienated from adolescent girls and young women.
“We have satellite sessions at the conference to compare notes to take back home and implement. The country is doing well to get closer to their goal of ending Aids and TB,” Dlamini said.
A delegation of health scientists, HIV activists and policymakers under the Sanac banner South African National Aids Council will be led by Deputy Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla.
The department said the conference on HIV and Aids sits uniquely at the intersection of science, advocacy and human rights, bringing together scientists, policymakers, healthcare professionals, people living with HIV, funders and communities who will share knowledge, best practices and lessons learnt from HIV response over the past four decades.
Phaahla considers the conference as “a myriad opportunities” for South Africa to share lessons learnt from the discovery medicine trials for HIV vaccines, and the latest results from the HIV Prevalence, Incidence, Behaviour and Communication Survey, among others.
The delegation will also include the Patron of the Global Alliance to end Aids in children by 2030, Humile Mashatile.
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