To mark World Aids Day 2023, Chamber hosted a discussion where panellists delved into the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS including tackling stigma, the role of communities and the ambitious goal of eliminating HIV transmission in the UK by 2030.
Paul Bates, Assistant Director (External Affairs) at Terrance Higgins Trust, chaired the session. Panellists included:
- Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury
- Matthew Hodson – Executive Director, aidsmap
- Silvia Petretti – CEO, Positively UK
Supporting People Living with HIV
As chair, Paul kicked off the discussion by setting out the theme for this year’s World AIDS Day; the importance of communities in mobilising efforts to reduce HIV and AIDS.
As the discussion unfolded, Silvia, emphasised the pivotal role of supporting individuals living with HIV. “The support to people living with HIV is an important aspect of prevention and ensuring that nobody transmits can acquire HIV,” she stated. “When people with HIV are supported and in good health, we control the virus, and we don’t transmit.”
Silvia further underscored the existing tools for HIV prevention, including Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). Despite these tools, she pointed out the disparities in PrEP access, especially among women, trans individuals, and other marginalized communities. “Access to PrEP, for everybody who needs it, needs to be a priority if we want to really achieve zero transmissions,” Sylvia stated, advocating for the removal of barriers to ensure wider accessibility.
Silvia also later highlighted the need for creative approaches in involving women and minorities. Discussing the fact that many women have childcare duties she stated that “we cannot make engagement a luxury, that only people with a disposable time and disposable income can be engaged. We have to remove some of the barriers from engagement both at the local and global level. And for me that means to really give funds at the grassroots, give funds to organisations that are run by the people who are facing the issues”.
“We need creative ways and innovative ways of involving women and other communities. People, women with HIV, minorities, migrants, we are not a problem to be fixed. We are a resource.”
Silvia Petretti
Combatting Stigma
Matthew stressed the significance of tackling stigma in the fight against HIV. “Tackling stigma isn’t just about being nice to people who live with HIV. It is a crucial element to ending the epidemic,” he contented as stigma creates hurdles to testing, access to care, and overall prevention efforts.
Matthew highlighted the need for a collective effort to combat stigma, acknowledging the firsthand experience of those living with HIV and their unique understanding of the challenges. He stated “I think the reason why letting communities lead has been the focus for this year’s World AIDS Day is because actually that is where you’re going to put your money most effectively. If you put the resource into where the communities are working, where they’re going to use the language which the communities with greatest need are going to be able to access it, and where you’re reducing those barriers, that’s where we get real change and that’s why it’s so important. I really welcome the theme for this year”.
“The very language which we use around HIV so often stigmatizes in itself. And so I think what we want to do is just say, let’s set the ambition high that it isn’t just about quelling that anger, which people may feel, it’s just about challenging the assumption that people living with HIV are any lesser than others”.
Matthew Hodson
Cautionary Note and the Global Approach
Matthew also expressed a note of caution regarding the 2030 targets. “We’re not on target to reach them,” he warned, citing recent modeling indicating that the goals might be out of reach. Matthew stressed the need for increased investment in sexual health services to enhance testing capacity, PrEP provision, and support for those on treatment. Matthew then pointed out the importance of a global approach, stating, “COVID illustrated really sharply that you cannot solve global problems with a local approach.”
Following this, Lord Smith spoke of the necessity of providing resources to achieve the 2030 goal. “It ought to be a no brainer to invest in prevention as much as possible,” Lord Smith urged. “Whether we will meet the 2030 target deadline, I don’t know. But we shouldn’t abandon it simply because it’s going to be difficult” He remarked.
Lord Smith also acknowledged the challenges posed by stigma and underscored the importance of combating both the physical and social aspects of HIV. “Those of us who are living with HIV have faced, in a way, two diseases,” Lord Smith shared. “The physical disease that comes with the virus and its operation on the body, but also the social disease that comes from fear and stigma associated with HIV.”
“If we want to make sure, both in the UK and around the world, that people have access to the best medical responses to HIV, have access to the best prevention against HIV, and have the possibility of countering stigma against people who have HIV, we need communities taking a lead in order to try and make sure that that happens. And it’s quite probably even more true in places like sub Saharan Africa and East Asia than it is even here in the UK and Europe”.
Rt Hon Lord Smith
Furthermore, Lord Smith mentioned a phone call he had with Nelson Mandela stating “I walked into my parliamentary office on the Monday morning and there was a note on my desk saying, please ring Mr. Mandela with a telephone number. And I rang this telephone number and there at the other end of the line, picking it up was Nelson Mandela saying, I want to say thank you. You’ve made a real difference. And that sort of made it all worthwhile after all”.
Final thought
The participants echoed a unified message: achieving the 2030 goal is challenging but imperative. The commitment to ending HIV transmission requires sustained effort, resource allocation, and a collaborative approach which prioritises community engagement.
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