Global Coalition Against HIV | 19 Nov 2020

Why in News

Recently, the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare digitally addressed the Ministerial meeting of the Global Prevention Coalition (GPC) for Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Prevention.

• It was hosted by Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on behalf of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition (GPC).

Key Notes

• Global HIV Prevention Coalition (GPC):
  
  • It is a global coalition of United Nations Member States, donors, civil society organizations which was established in the year 2017 to support global efforts to accelerate HIV prevention.
  • Membership: It includes the 25 highest HIV burden countries, UNAIDS Cosponsors, donors, civil society and private sector organizations.
  • Goal: To strengthen and sustain political commitment for primary prevention by setting a common agenda among key policy-makers, funders and programme implementers.
• Significance of the Conference:
  
  • The conference this year holds significance in achieving the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) commitment to end Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) by 2030.
    
    • Member States of the GPC had agreed to reduce new adult HIV infections by 75% at the end of 2020 from 2010 levels.
• India at the Conference:
  
  • Acknowledged that Global AIDS response has shown remarkable success in reducing new infections, improving access to prevention services for key population and treatment services for People Living with HIV (PLHIV), reducing AIDS related mortality, enabling reduction in mother to child transmission of HIV and creating an enabling environment.
    
    • GPC has shown to the world a model where multiple stakeholders can come together and work cohesively towards a common goal.
  • Observed that the global AIDS response in general has been a fountainhead of innovative service delivery models with rich civil society involvement and cross learning.
• India Against HIV:
  
  • India’s unique HIV prevention model:
    
    • Aim: To provide outreach, service delivery, counselling & testing and ensuring linkages to HIV care
    • Centered around the concept of Social Contracting through which the Targeted Interventions (TI) programme is implemented.
  • Protected the gains made in HIV during Covid-19 by taking swift and timely action to reach out to the last mile with a robust implementation plan for Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARV) dispensation.
    
    • Advisories and guidance notes were issued by National Aids Control Organization (NACO) from time to time aligned with global guidelines in the context.
  • Revamped its Targeted Intervention (TI) programme to focus on hard-to-reach populations to keep its commitments- People living in prisons and other closed settings were considered as priority populations and interventions launched were gradually scaled up since 2016.
    
    • The HIV Counselling & Testing Services (HCTS) and Community based Screening of HIV for improving early diagnosis were also ramped up.
    • The coverage of testing for HIV across the country was increased to achieve the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV.
    • The Test and Treat Policy: Approximately 50,000 PLHIV who were lost to follow-up were linked back to Antiretroviral Treatment services through Mission SAMPARK, while Viral Load Testing facilities have been scaled up from the existing ten public sector labs to 64 labs across the country.
  • Enacted The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017 which has provided a legal and enabling framework for safeguarding the human rights of the infected and affected populations.
  • Project Sunrise
    
    • A new initiative called 'Project Sunrise' was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2016, to tackle the rising HIV prevalence in north-eastern states in India, especially among people injecting drugs.
  • Helping the world:
    
    • India’s provision of generic (ARV) to the world has had a critical impact in controlling the HIV epidemic.
    • India is ready to extend its unique HIV prevention model to the rest of the world by tailoring the intervention as per local settings.
• Other international initiatives against AIDS:
  
  • The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)
    
    • Founded in 2002, it is a partnership organization designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.

Source:PIB