Prince Harry says world must revive urgency in AIDS fight

His passion to end the AIDS epidemic was praised by Sir Elton John who, in his own speech, said he could not relate to teenagers in the way Harry can and praised him for following his mother’s determination to “make the world a better place”. “We are investing with our voices, our capacity, and our dollars to help achieve an AIDS-free generation in which no one is left behind, in the USA and around the world”. “We are sounding the alarm”, said Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAids. “At the same time, HIV/AIDS mortality has been declining at a steady pace, from a peak of 1.8 million deaths in 2005, to 1.2 million deaths in 2015”, said the findings.

Researchers did find the increases in age-standardized rates of new infections between 2005 and 2015 in 74 countries, including Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya, the Philippines, Cambodia, Mexico, and Russian Federation, something that threatens to undermine past progress in combating infections.

He indicated that for every one person who received life-saving treatment back then, there are now 17 who have it today, meaning that the number of people treated has increased 17 times at least.

“Over 12 million people are now on treatment, which is incredible, and we have seen the infection rate come down by a third so the people here who have contributed to this contributed should know that it is a success”.

To achieve this goal, UNAIDS emphasized, “Prevention efforts will need to be matched by an equally robust effort to address the treatment needs of children living with HIV”.

“The vaccine work that we do is to prevent HIV infection from happening in people who are negative”, she said.

Harry was joined by his Sentebale co-founder, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, and earlier they toured the conference, visiting Sentebale’s Global Village session about the model of psychosocial support the charity provides to adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. We will fight for their rights, their human rights, their health, everything. More than 37,000 adults were infected with HIV, including 7,500 young women.

The Lancet study shows that the number of Kenyans dying from HIV-related conditions has declined by half from 120,670 in 2005 to 51,700 in 2015.

However, he said prevention tools were not enough and that injections that could help prevent infection needed to be focused on. The UN has set a target of ending the AIDS pandemic by 2030.