T

he 21st International AIDS Conference ended on Friday in Durban, South Africa. witnessing progress and notable achievements in the scientific research toward a HIV cure, but still noting the severe stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV that is hampering efforts to end AIDS by 2030.

Around 18,000 participants took part in the five-day conference, which attracted world leaders, businesses, prominent figures, scientists, civil society organizations and media from around the world.

Chris Beyrer, president of the event’s organizer the International AIDS Society (IAS), said during a media roundtable prior to the closing ceremony that this year’s conference was unique and vibrant.

“Some outstanding scientific findings have brought new light to reach to the HIV cure and vaccines, but we have still seen discriminatory laws and policy barriers, stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV, especially among the key populations,” said Beyrer.

He further said, “We will not end AIDS without addressing the needs of the most vulnerable individuals and communities, who are currently being left behind.”

He said that protecting human rights was not just a moral issue, but also a scientific one.

“Research presented at the conference have demonstrated that exclusion and discrimination help fuel the spread of HIV,” he added.

The AIDS epidemic has had a huge global impact over the past 35 years. Since the start of the epidemic in the early 1980s, 35 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses and an estimated 78 million have become infected with HIV, UNAIDS reports.

Key populations include gay men and men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers and their clients, transgender people, intravenous drug users and prisoners, accounting for 35 percent of new HIV infections globally in 2014. Many of them do not have access to testing and treatment because of the stigma and discrimination.

MSM are estimated to be 24 times more likely to become infected than the general population; sex workers 10 times, people who inject drugs 24 times, transgender women 49 times and prisoners five times.

According to the UNAIDS Prevention Gap report issued in 2016, an estimated 1.9 million adults have become infected with HIV every year for at least the past five years and new infections among adults are rising in some regions.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia saw a 57 percent increase in annual new HIV infections between 2010 and 2015. The Caribbean saw a 9 percent rise in annual HIV new infections. In the Middle East and North Africa, annual new infections increased by 4 percent. Meanwhile, in the Asia-Pacific region including Indonesia, the number of new HIV infections rose by 3 percent between 2010 and 2015.

Indonesia is among the countries with the highest number of new HIV infections with 75,000 new infections, mostly among key populations in 2015.

“We are sounding the alarm,” said Michel Sidibè, executive director of UNAIDS. “The power of prevention is not being realized. If there is a resurgence in new HIV infection now, the epidemic will be impossible to control,” he said.

The reports of a rising number of new HIV infections comes as data reveal donor funding has declined to its lowest levels since 2010. International donor contributions dropped from a peak of US$9.7 billion in 2013 to $8.1 billion in 2015.

“The year 2015 marked a significant drop in donor funding for HIV,” said Jen Kates, vice president of Kaiser Family Foundation, which jointly conducted a study on HIV global funding with UNAIDS.

“Donors faced many competing funding demands, including humanitarian emergencies and the refugee crisis, all against the backdrop of fiscal austerity in a number of countries including the effect of Brexit,” Kates noted.

UNAIDS deputy executive director Luiz Loures said the decline in international funding was worrying. “Countries [low-middle income in particular] still need urgent support over the next few years to fast-track their responses to HIV, enabling them to end AIDS by 2030 and save millions of lives,” he said.

Diverting resources from the HIV response now will mean much greater human and financial costs over the long-term, Loures added.