Increasing access to HIV/AIDS products
Health day
Amsterdam, 1 December 2022 – Today is World AIDS Day, a day where we spread awareness of the status of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and we encourage progress in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Worldwide, over 38 million people are living with HIV. While testing, treatments and prevention methods have come a long way, the work continues to end the epidemic that at first generated stigma, misinformation and miscommunication. It was through the work of activists and researchers that lifesaving treatments emerged, allowing people living with HIV to live long and healthy lives – something they never imagined would transpire. This World AIDS day’s theme is ‘Equalize’, a slogan and call-to-action to address inequalities worldwide when it comes to awareness and education, but also healthcare globally.
Partnerships to increase access to treatment
An important way to reduce inequalities is making sure everyone has access to quality HIV prevention, diagnostics, and treatment. At IDA Foundation it is our mission to bridge the gap in access to medicines. The past decades we have been supplying several products related to diagnosing and treating patients at risk of and suffering from HIV/AIDS.
As one of the partners within the Chemonics consortium, we supply essential HIV/AIDS products for the USAID Global Health Supply Chain – Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) programme. Thanks to PEPFAR and USAID, GHSC-PSM has likely helped avert approximately 1.2 million infections and 350,000 deaths over the life of the project. Through millions of deliveries of antiretrovirals (ARV), prevention methods such as condoms and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and laboratory equipment and tools along with overall supply chain support at the national and even district level in over 40 countries, the person-centered HIV/AIDS supply chain has helped save lives and continues to do so.
The 2025 AIDS targets
UNAIDS has set targets for 2025, including:
- 95% use combination prevention (condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis PrEP and voluntary medical male circumcision VMMC)
- 95% of PLHIV know their HIV status
- 95% coverage of services for eliminating vertical transmission (mother to child)
- 95% of women access HIV and sexual and reproductive health services
It is their goal to put people living with HIV and communities at risk at the centre to make sure they have access to quality health care. Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS’ Executive Director said the following: “These targets address the inequalities on which HIV, COVID-19 and other pandemics thrive and put people at the centre, especially the people most at risk and the marginalized.”
With IDA’s work, and with the partnerships we are in, we believe we can have a positive impact on the achievement of some of these targets.
Read more about HIV/AIDS and find a list of the products that we supply in our Product Indicator.