On World AIDS Day, we reflect upon the global response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. During this year’s UN General Assembly High-Level week, the United States hosted the Seventh Global Fund Replenishment Conference, gathering Member States, NGOs, and international partners to recommit to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The conference raised $14.25 billion to date, the largest amount ever raised for the Global Fund and one of the single largest fundraising efforts for global health ever.
The United States is proud to be the largest donor for global health and a founding member of the Global Fund, which works in concert with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Together, Global Fund and PEPFAR have contributed to the reduction of AIDS-related deaths by 70 percent. New HIV infections declined from 2.2 million in 2010 to 1.5 million in 2021 and AIDS-related death rates – deaths as a proportion of the population – dropped by 74 percent between 2002 and 2020.
Advances in the fight against HIV/AIDS have been extraordinary, but there is more work to do. We are committed to ending HIV/AIDS as a global health threat by 2030. Now is the time to accelerate our efforts to reduce health inequities and to address barriers to access, including gender and human rights barriers, to build a more inclusive healthcare systems to leave no one behind and to end AIDS for good.
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