Can we still end AIDS by 2030, despite funding cuts?

Today (Monday) is World Aids Day, and it arrives with a sobering reminder that the HIV/Aids pandemic is far from over.

While there has been significant progress and treatment breakthroughs, last year alone, 53,000 lives were lost to HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

Can we do better? That’s the challenge raised in a powerful Sunday Times piece by leading epidemiologist Prof Salim Abdool Karim.

With major global funding cuts, particularly by the US, a question mark now hovers over the goal of ending the pandemic by 2030.

Karim says it's been 40 years since he first heard about the disease and says the escalation of its mortality rates was rapid.

"Twenty years later, we had over 300,000 deaths a year."

However, that figure has reduced drastically, says Karim, noting an almost 80% decrease in deaths.

"But it's that last 20% that's going to be our most difficult," he says.

In 2016, the UN set a goal of ending AIDSas a public health threat by 2030.

In practice, that means a 90% reduction in HIV incidence, says Karim.

"For South Africa, we have quite a way to go to get to that 90% reduction."

Looking at the data from two years ago, the country was closer to being on track to that target, he says, but the concern is whether that can be sustained.

The challenge, says Karim, is two-fold, starting with political will.

"The commitment that there was to HIV is no longer; Covid-19 took away some of that attention. Our attention is not focused on HIV in the same way."

The second issue, explains Karim, is funding.

Funding has been cut since US President Donald Trump returned to power.

And it's not just the US that has withdrawn funding; European countries are doing so too.

"We are fortunate that, not like our neighbours Mozambique and Zambia, we have not relied on the US to pay for our drugs or lab tests, so from that point of view the core elements of our programme are intact."

However, he says, where South Africa falls short is in the ability of the government to fund additional activities such as the prevention programmes.

Karim believes the way forward is to refocus and establish the core elements of the programmes that are currently working.

"This is a time to reassess, replan and refocus."

To listen to Karim in conversation with 702's Bongani Bingwa, click below: