Global HIV response holds lessons for fight against coronavirus

International solidarity, addressing inequality and looking beyond health concerns are key to preventing future health emergencies
As with HIV, Covid-19 is showing that pandemics and their impacts are about more than just health

Shannon Hader

Published: 3:30am, 5 Jun 2021

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It is our duty to learn the important lessons from the global HIV response for fighting Covid-19 and preventing future health emergencies. We have three lessons to share.

First, a global health threat – be it HIV, polio or Covid-19 – can only be defeated with the solidarity of a global commitment. International cooperation and highest-level ambition in the plan are crucial.

For the current Covid-19 response, we still have far to go to realise that solidarity and achieve equal results across the world.

Early in the pandemic, even before there was a vaccine, UNAids and partners called for a “people’s vaccine”, espousing the principle that where you live should not determine your place in the queue for the vaccine.

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What we didn’t want to see is a repeat of the HIV response, where poorer countries waited nearly a decade after the roll-out of effective HIV treatment in wealthy countries before it became available to them.

But now – several months into Covid-19 vaccine availability – we are seeing vast disparities in access. While a small group of wealthy nations is on course to vaccinate most of their adults by mid-2021, many low-income countries might not reach those levels until 2023 or 2024.

Specifically, to date, low-income countries have received only 0.2 per cent of the global vaccine supply despite being home to 10 per cent of the world’s population.

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There are several strategies to remedy this. First, make new technologies accessible to competent manufacturers across the world. The World Health Organization’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool is a mechanism to facilitate such sharing.

Second, world leaders must fully consider the proposal by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization for the patent waiver on Covid-19 tools, including vaccines and treatments.

Finally, these actions must go hand in hand with a clear financing plan for global contributions and fiscal actions to vaccinate the world.

UNAids commends President Xi Jinping for his commitment and the actions that China has taken to honour the promise that a vaccine produced in China would be a global public good. We also applaud China’s commitment to supporting technology transfer and vaccine manufacturing in Africa.

The second lesson is that if we don’t end inequalities in access and outcomes, we will not end Aids or any other pandemic. In many parts of the world, including the Asia-Pacific region, cultural, religious and political status quos, stigma, discrimination and punitive laws and practices drive people underground and away from the services they need.

To combat HIV, some governments in the region have transcended status quos in the interest of public health. They have joined hands with community groups and used social contracting models to work with civil society to reach those who would otherwise not be reached.

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Increased South-South cooperation, technical exchange and solidarity are needed to ensure all of society comes together to defeat pandemics.

The third lesson is one of hope. We must use this moment to invest in new, refreshed public health architecture. Just as with HIV, Covid-19 is showing us that pandemics and their impacts are health issues but are about much more than just health.

Our response must be multisectoral. Investments in health, education and social protection are not unaffordable expenditure but vital investments for pandemic preparedness and resilient societies.

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Let me also remind you of the unfinished business of Aids. In 2019 alone, there were almost 700,000 cases of Aids-related deaths and a staggering 1.7 million people were newly infected with HIV. Covid-19 is threatening our gains. This should concern all of us.

In a just few days – from June 8 to 10 in New York – member states will come together at the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on HIV/Aids. We hope for a new, ambitious political declaration to get the world back on track to ending Aids as a public health threat by 2030. UNAids is looking to the Asia-Pacific region for bold leadership.

A bold, ambitious declaration next week is one which takes us decisively towards ending Aids. The litmus test for this declaration is that it should move us forward, nor backwards.

It must include everyone – irrespective of age, gender, sexual orientation, geographical location or social status – because only by delivering for those most affected will we defeat the HIV epidemic.

Together in solidarity, we can end Aids, defeat Covid-19 and prevent future major public health threats.

Shannon Hader is deputy executive director of UNAids. This is an edited version of a video speech given to the health forum at the Boao Forum for Asia on June 3

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