UNAIDS Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Winnie Byanyima has praised Thailand's success in promoting community sustainability in its Aids response, encouraging other countries to learn this model from Thailand.
Speaking to the Bangkok Post in an exclusive interview at the 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS2024), which is being held until Friday, Ms Byanyima said the Thai government has been doing very well in assisting communities working with people living with HIV (PLHIV).
"The Thai government is working closely with communities to deliver health services to people living with HIV. Thailand does this very well," she said.
Moreover, Thailand has good laws and policies to encourage people living with HIV to come forward to get treatment for HIV. The country has no law criminalising people if they are gay, for example.
People can have access to primary healthcare without paying money, and HIV treatment and services are connected with primary healthcare.
"The Thai model [in providing healthcare services and treatment] is a good practice. We've encouraged other countries to learn from Thailand's response to HIV," she said.
Ms Byanyima said that communities working with people living with HIV in Thailand are part of the success because they have played a great role in delivering free-of-charge services for PLHIV.
To encourage other countries to follow the Thai model, she said UNAIDS has enlisted Thai leaders and doctors who are working with communities and people living with HIV to share their knowledge globally.
According to UNAIDS, Thailand is on track to meet the 95-95-95 Global AIDS Strategy testing and treatment targets by 2025.
The declaration calls on member states to ensure that 95% of PLHIV know their HIV status, 95% of people who know their status are receiving HIV treatment, and 95% of people on treatment are virally suppressed.
By the end of 2022, an estimated 90% of PLHIV were aware of their status. Ninety per cent of diagnosed people were on treatment, and an impressive 97% of those on treatment achieved a suppressed viral load.
Thailand is fully committed to ending Aids as a public health threat as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal agenda.
The country is internationally recognised for its "peer-to-peer" approach, initiated in 1996. This framework allows PLHIVs to support each other.
This initiative has grown into a network encompassing district, provincial, and national levels, evolving into what is now known as the "Comprehensive Care Center" (CCC).
Currently, there are approximately 219 such CCC networks nationwide.
End stigma, discrimination
However, Ms Byanyima went on to say that she is highly concerned about the situation of stigma and discrimination against PLHIV until these people dare not come out to receive prevention and treatment at hospitals and clinics.
So UNAIDS put HIV services in the hands of communities. That's why the role of community is key.
"We still find that stigma is very strong against people living with HIV. Everywhere I go, I see people who have received [HIV] treatment for 20 years still facing discrimination and stigmatisation from their communities.
"So that's why confidentiality and privacy are so important for people living with HIV. Discrimination and stigma are driving people living with HIV from lifesaving services," she said.
"So, we measured this, and we have an index to measure stigmatisation and discrimination related to HIV. We encouraged countries to use it to address stigma, especially in health safety."
Ms Byanyima is calling for leaders around the world to help end stigma and discrimination against PLHIV.
Apart from that, she is concerned about human rights abuse against marginalised people, such as men having sex with men (MSM) in some developing countries.
"These people are being hunted down because they are gay," she said.
"We organised people to defend their rights. They must stand together to defend their rights, especially in countries where these people are attacked. We are now supporting communities to help these people to help challenge themselves and fight for their rights," she said.
The pandemic's end
Ms Byanyima also discussed a new UNAIDS report that shows the Aids pandemic could potentially be brought under control by 2030. The report was launched at the 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS2024)
The new report shows that the world is at a critical moment if world leaders are to meet their commitment to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030.
The report, "The Urgency of Now: Aids at a Crossroads", offers new data and case studies that demonstrate that the decisions made this year will decide the fate of millions of lives.
The report's findings concluded that if leaders take the bold actions needed now to ensure sufficient and sustainable resourcing and protect everyone's human rights, the number of PLHIV requiring life-long treatment will stabilise at around 29 million by 2050.
But if they take the wrong path, that same group of people needing life-long support will rise to 46 million.
"World leaders pledged to end the Aids pandemic as a public health threat by 2030, and they can uphold their promise, but only if they ensure that the HIV response has the resources it needs and that the human rights of everyone are protected," according to Ms Byanyima.
"We had 1.3 new million infections last year globally, yet the target for 2025 leaders pledged to reduce annual new infections to below 370,000. We need to move faster, especially in regions like Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We need to see new infections coming down, but they are now going up," she said.
More than 10,000 participants are attending the 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS2024), the world's largest gathering of people living with, affected by, and working on HIV, taking place in person in Munich, Germany, and also virtually under a theme of "putting people first".