WHO Director-General Keynote Address at 12th International AIDS Society HIV Scientific Conference – 23 July 2023 – World

Opening ceremony

Dear Mark Butler,

IAS President Professor Sharon Lewin,

Professor Charlie Gilkes,

Joy Walter

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Good evening to all Brisbane attendees, and to those joining us online.

I salute the traditional owners of Meangzin, the land you are meeting, and I salute the elders past, present, and emerging.

Thank you to the City of Brisbane, the Government of Queensland and Australia for hosting this conference, and the Queensland Positive People for bringing important voices of people living with HIV to this conference.

And I honor the memory of the six delegates (including WHO colleague Glenn Thomas) who lost their lives en route to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne nine years ago.

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This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization.

WHO was founded on the simple but powerful idea that health is a fundamental right of all people.

HIV was not yet known when the Constitution came into force in 1948.

But since it was first identified more than 40 years ago, the same principle – the right to health – has been central to the HIV response, along with the power of science and the voices of affected communities.

The progress we have made has not only turned the tide on HIV, but has also supported the response to many other diseases, including COVID-19 and MPOX.

We welcome the significant advances presented at this conference across the spectrum of basic, clinical, preventive, social, behavioral and implementation sciences.

WHO will also share updates with the community on our efforts to improve prevention, testing, treatment and care.

On the role of antiretroviral therapy in preventing sexually transmitted infections.

About understanding how best to treat the various health problems that affect people with advanced HIV disease.

It also discusses how to strengthen health systems based on a primary health care approach that delivers services, empowers communities, and works across sectors.

We also present a new analysis on HIV and novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), another showing a clear link between HIV and mpox, and research supporting how communities have become central to addressing the mpox epidemic.

Science, human rights and community engagement have brought us here.

New data released last week by UNAIDS and WHO show that countries such as Botswana, Eswatini, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe have already met the 95/95/95 target, and at least 16 others are close to achieving it.

We also salute Australia’s incredible progress and efforts to end HIV.

I commend Honorary Minister Mark Butler for his leadership in driving this effort with Australian community, clinical and research partners.

More countries around the world are preparing to verify elimination of vertical transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B.

Despite these encouraging advances, many real challenges remain.

Public finances remain precarious, and many high-impact countries remain overly dependent on external assistance.

New infections and deaths are declining, but not fast enough.

In addition, the number of people living with HIV is increasing in some countries and communities.

At the same time, we face a world of multiple overlapping crises: conflict, migration, and climate change. These crises have implications for the HIV response, especially for vulnerable small island states.

Looking to the future, I would like to highlight three priorities. These three are the same things that got us here.

First, we must continue to harness the power of basic science to behavioral science and everything in between to develop new and more powerful tools, maximize their effectiveness, and continue the quest for treatments and vaccines.

Second, we must continue to listen and respond to the voices of affected communities in the design and development of our tools and programs.

And third, we need to keep human rights at the center.

HIV has taught us, and COVID-19 and mpox have taught us that health is not a luxury for those who can afford it, but a fundamental right of all human beings, without distinction, as the WHO Charter says.

Thank you for all you have done to make the rights of all people a reality. WHO is proud to be a partner on this journey.

thank you.