Dear Advocate,
Today AVAC published Achieving the End: One Year and Counting, our 2012 Report on the state of biomedical HIV prevention research and implementation.
The full report, executive summary and downloadable graphics and PowerPoints are available at http://www.avac.org/resource/2012-avac-report-achieving-end%E2%80%94one-year-and-counting.
Achieving the End: One Year and Counting sets a clock on the global drive to end the AIDS epidemic. The past twelve months have seen remarkable global consensus that it is possible to begin to end the epidemic. The same time period has seen concepts like “combination prevention” and “treatment as prevention” capture the world’s attention. But without specific interim goals—and far more precision about what combination prevention and other key concepts mean—the lofty goal of ending the epidemic will not be achieved.
This year’s AVAC Report has been designed as an advocacy tool for developing agendas and messages, and for critiquing global and national actions, and documents—such as the recently released UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report 2012 and the soon-to-be-released and much-anticipated PEPFAR “blueprint” for the US government AIDS response.
Specifically, AVAC Report 2012 identifies five priority actions for HIV prevention over the coming 12 months:
- End confusion about “combination prevention”
- Narrow the gaps in the treatment cascade
- Prepare for the impact of new non-surgical male circumcision devices
- Define and launch a core package of PrEP demonstration projects
- Safeguard HIV prevention research funding
Progress on these priority items is not possible without action on one fundamental issue: the leadership gap at global and national levels. In the Report’s conclusion, we identify key steps that must happen to fill this gap in the coming year.
As always, actions speak far louder than words. We’ll be using this Report as a roadmap for accountability and activity in the coming year. And we look forward to working with many of you to achieving progress at this critical time.
To order printed copies of this year’s Report (and other AVAC publications) click here.
Best,
AVAC
