Ending HIV/AIDS

It sounds so good. What is all this talk about ending the epidemic? Can someone please tell me? And why as soon as one organization speaks or does something that all the others want to jump on board? It sounds like a good plan, but I want to know: how is it going to happen and how come everyone waited until 2019 to talk about it?

What happened to the 90-90-90 Strategy?

What happened to the global 90-90-90 plan everyone had in place to get 90 percent of people who are living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART) medication, 90 percent of them to achieve viral suppression, and 90 percent of them to be treated by 2020.

Well, 2020 is here. What’s the date that’s projected for this? Or did they forget about this target plan? How many really even care if we end HIV at all? That’s what I want to know because it seems that when these plans are in place, then funds are issued to work on it.

What will it take to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic?

First off, there are 39 million people who have passed away from this virus and 37.9 million that we know of living with HIV globally. Something should have been done long ago, but that’s just my opinion.

Community advocates and activists

To end this epidemic, it’s going to take us advocates to get out there in our community since we are the ones hitting the ground so hard. It’s going to take advocates and activists who aren't afraid to walk the streets and speak out. It won’t take health departments, ASOs, or the huge organizations at all.

Based on my personal experience, the Black community will be the hardest. But it can get done with all of us together doing the work. I remember an awesome advocate on my show named Aleica Tramel who said that they will never end the epidemic as long as all of us who are diagnosed are still living with HIV.

Other tools that can help

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)

PrEP is pre-exposure prophylaxis. Truvada is a drug that is given to a person who is HIV positive to help with the virus. But it is also given to an HIV-negative person to protect them against contracting HIV, especially those who are at a higher risk.¹

Descovy is also taken by people living with HIV. Now someone who is HIV negative can take it is as PrEP.² The medication has not yet been thoroughly research for use in those who were assigned female at birth.

Treatment as prevention (TASP)

Treatment as prevention (TasP) has been around for years and it's one of the ways that many people were able to conceive.^3,7 And now, we have UequalsU!

Undetectable = untransmittable, U=U

Undetectable = Untransmittable is a groundbreaking campaign that has given people their lives back. It raises awareness that if people living with HIV are taking HIV medication consistently and are maintaining an undetectable viral load, then the virus can not be transmitted to their partners.^4-8 This is supported by science in from the Partner Study.^4,5

Together UequalsU and PrEP will help eliminate HIV transmissions - do you know how big this is? That means it’s our job to get this information out there to everyone and sharing it with other countries.