Addressing the event held virtually, the Deputy PM stressed the need to ensure sufficient resources for HIV/AIDS response, especially for developing nations, non-disruptive supply of antiretrovirals and accelerating the development of HIV vaccines and cure medicines.
Dam reiterated Vietnam’s commitment to achieve the 90-90-90 target (90% of all people living with HIV know their disease status, 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression), stressing that to reach the upcoming 95-95-95 goal, the world needs 100-100-100 effort, and even more.
At the meeting, President of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, and UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima lauded the active engagement of member countries in coping with HIV/AIDS over the years.
Bozkir described AIDS as an epidemic of inequalities. To end AIDS by 2030, he called for ending inequalities.
Ending the disease is both a prerequisite for — and a result of — implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, he stressed.
According to UNAIDS, 37.6 million people across the globe were living with HIV in 2020, including 27.4 million people accessing antiretroviral therapy, more than three times higher than that in 2010, at 7.8 million.
The number of people died from AIDS-related illnesses fell 43% in 2020 to 690,000.
