Recently I attended a reception promoting global solutions for a very worthy social issue at which several celebrities were speaking.    Each had personal reasons for putting their imprimatur on the project, which were both interesting and compelling.

But it struck me when one said, “We’ve already taken care of so many other things—like AIDS—it’s time to move on to this one.”    While those of us working in HIV/AIDS continue to talk about getting to an AIDS-free generation, we fully understand that HIV/AIDS has not yet “been taken care of.”

In reality there is much more to do. In fact, according to the UNAIDS Fast-Track report, Ending the AIDS Epidemic by 2030, the gap between where the response is now and where it should be is quite wide.  UNAIDS believes that the next five years (2015-2020) represent the best hope for humanity to put the epidemic on the fast track towards its end.

Anyone who thinks that we have effectively “taken care of HIV/AIDS” is sadly mistaken.     We still have a long, long way to go.    Without the commitment of global leaders to increased funding and fast-track programming, we will be living with HIV/AIDS for a very long time.

“There is a strong global consensus that the tools exist to end the AIDS epidemic,” the report states.   “The achievement of targets built on these tools now needs to be fast tracked. Fast-tracking the end of the AIDS epidemic is possible by working together—fostering innovation, securing sustainable financing, strengthening health systems and communities, ensuring commodity security, promoting human rights and ensuring access to HIV prevention and treatment services.”

UNAIDS says, “Quickening the pace to achieve the Fast-Track Targets would reverse the AIDS epidemic by 2020.   With achievement of these new targets, by 2030 the epidemic would be dwindling.”

In contrast, UNAIDS warns that, “Business as usual (keeping service coverage at 2013 levels), means the epidemic will have rebounded by 2030, representing an even more serious threat to the world’s future health and well-being and requiring substantial resources for what could then be an uncontrolled epidemic.”

This sobering report comes at a time when resources for HIV/AIDS are scarce.    Funding levels for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are equal to 2011 levels, with no increase in sight.    Funding for the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis are not up to projected levels.

Be part of ending AIDS by becoming more engaged.   Explain to friends and colleagues that we CAN do it, but we all need to work together in the right way to actually accomplish it.

Anita M. Smith

CAFI President

The overall global decline in new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths masks the realities of pockets of high prevalence in specific populations.    According to a report just issued by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 15- to 24-year old adolescent girls and young women in eastern and southern Africa–infected at rates two to five times higher than boys their age–is one of these groups.

In response to this stark reality the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Nike Foundation to significantly reduce new HIV infections in adolescent girls and young women.   The DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-Free, Mentored and Safe) Partnership’s goal is to reduce incidence in 10 high-burden “hot spots” by 25% in two years and by 40% in three years.

These girls account for 80% of all new HIV infections among adolescents—with 7,000 girls and young women aged 15-24 infected every week—and with HIV/AIDS the leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19

While the gap in addressing girls in the global HIV response has been long understood by those providing HIV/AIDS services, this recent data created a clarion call to action.    Ambassador Deborah Birx, US Global AIDS Coordinator says this is “an incredible, compelling time to make a huge difference.”

DREAMS will focus on the most vulnerable: those whose parents have HIV or have died of AIDS; those engaged in cross-generational or transactional sex; those married as adolescents; those who have experienced gender-based violence; those who are food insecure; and those who are mobile or whose parents are mobile.

“The obstacles to reaching these ambitious targets are many,” said Anita Smith Children’s AIDS Fund International (CAFI) President, “but having worked with thousands of vulnerable girls in these same countries we know first-hand how critical and effective interventions are.  This is absolutely the right initiative at the right time.”

CAFI friends and supporters like you have provided livelihood skills, education scholarships, nutrition support, prevention education and much more over nearly 30 years.  Visit the CAFI store on our website to become part of this urgent intervention for vulnerable girls at this important time.

Addressing HIV Risk in Adolescent Girls and Young Women can be downloaded at the CSIS website:  www.csis.org.