World AIDS Day 2020: Global Solidarity, Shared Responsibility

Today is World AIDS Day, and the UN’s theme this year is 'Global Solidarity, Shared Responsibility’.

In 2020, 38 million people around the world are living with HIV, 25.4 million people are accessing antiretroviral therapy, and 1.7 million people became newly infected with HIV. In the last year, 690 000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses.

These statistics make it clear that the work is far from over. But the arrival of Covid-19 earlier this year, and the scale of the global response to it, resulted in attention and resources being diverted from other diseases, and HIV/AIDS was no exception.

The impact could be far reaching - according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS, deaths from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria could double in the coming year as a knock-on effect of the pandemic.

Both HIV/AIDS and Covid-19 are integrally linked with issues such as inequalities, wellbeing, and enabling social development and economic growth. And both require co-ordinated action, engagement, and shared responsibility to reduce the impact on individuals, their families, workplaces, and communities.

“It describes perfectly the approach we must adopt if we are to beat HIV/AIDS, stop the spread of Covid-19, and prevent the outbreak of future pandemics: by working together in a co-ordinated way, we can - and we will - prevent and contain their spread.”

Anglo American and HIV/AIDS

Despite the pressures, Covid-19 hasn’t derailed Anglo American’s response to HIV/AIDS.

The company has played an active role in the fight against the disease for 30 years and since 2000 has been working to reduce the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on our employees, their families, and the communities with which we are associated.

Our role was strengthened in January of this year, when we signed up to The Business Alliance to End AIDS at an event hosted during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

This public–private coalition, co-hosted by UNAIDS and GBCHealth, brings together forward-looking companies to build on common values and strengthen cross-sector collaboration.

It aims to provide businesses with the necessary tools and support needed from public sector partners to help realise the UN’s goal of ending AIDS by 2030.

Targets

At the end of 2019, we succeeded in reaching the first two of UNAIDS 90/90/90 targets: 90% of all people living with HIV would know their HIV status; 90% of those diagnosed with HIV would receive sustained anti-retroviral therapy; and 90% of those receiving antiretroviral therapy would have viral suppression, where the viral load is so low as to be undetectable.

We know that 94% of our employees know their HIV status and 92% of those identified as positive are receiving anti-retroviral treatment.

During 2020, in light of Covid-19, we adapted our response to HIV/AIDS among employees and in communities to ensure continuity of services.

We are still on track to achieve our ambitious new target of 95/95/95 by 2030, and to eliminate new cases of HIV/ AIDS among our employees in South Africa within five years.

“No-one is safe until everyone is safe”

Both Covid-19 and HIV can lead to stigmatisation and discrimination. However, as UNAIDS advised: “Eliminating stigma and discrimination, putting people at the centre and grounding our responses in human rights and gender-responsive approaches are key to ending the colliding pandemics of HIV and Covid-19.”

Dr. Elton added: “Covid-19 and HIV/AIDS have taught us that no-one is safe until everyone is safe. Anglo American is committed to keep doing the right things to win these health battles.”