Redactor: Marius DAEA

Good evening friends and colleagues, distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman,
On behalf of the International AIDS Society, and the wonderful Durban conference
coordinating committee, Welcome to AIDS 2016—and let me add a special Welcome Back
to those of you who were here for AIDS 2000. Can I ask all of you who attended Durban
2000 to stand? How about anyone who is attending their first International AIDS
Conference? The IAS has launched for the conference our new IAS Educational Fund, and
I’m delighted to say this has allowed us to offer full scholarships to over 200 clinical and
treatment advocates from around the world. Can I ask you to stand.
How the world has changed in the past 16 years!
In 2000 the IAS made a decision to hold the conference in Africa, and in South Africa, in part,
to address the huge numbers human beings on this continent living with untreated HIV, but
also to address the AIDS denialism then blocking advances in prevention and treatment.
After Durban, the treatment era and the goal of universal access can truly be said to have
begun.
And now, 16 years later, we are back together in this wonderful city, and South Africa now
has the largest HIV treatment program of any country on earth—with 3.4 million people on
therapy—and the PrEP access era is beginning.
So let me tell you about AIDS 2016. For this conference, and because we felt so strongly
about participation from Africa and from low resource settings, we more than doubled our
scholarship program to some 1300 people, including nearly 300 people living with HIV.
This is the most competitive scientific program we’ve ever had. The acceptance rate for oral
presentations was under 4%. Over 6,000 abstracts were submitted across the tracks—and
over 450 late breakers including data from over 25 trials.
And I’m delighted to say that for the first, the majority of accepted abstract first authors
were women, the majority of speakers at this conference will be women.
We had 16 pre-conferences leading up to AIDS 2016, including IAS Cure, TB 2016, an
outstanding PEPFAR Implementation Science meeting, and the first ever Transgender premeeting.
And these have been just fantastic with strong science and participation. And
since for the first time everyone attending was also co-registered with AIDS 2016, all of the
attendees at the pre meetings are now IAS members. Welcome to you all!
But we have not only gathered in Durban to celebrate our shared achievements. We are
here because of the urgency of the undone work—because we are still counting annual AIDS
deaths in the millions—because less than half of our precious brothers and sisters living with
HIV are being treated—and because new infections are holding steady in most places, and
expanding in others. We are here because it is too soon to declare the human victory over
HIV.
Friends, I wish nothing more in life than to stand before you tonight and to declare that we
are on track for the magnificent goal of ending AIDS.
But as long as new infections continue to occur among the adolescent girls and young
women of Africa at thousands a day
As long as young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men continue to face
hugely disproportionate rates of new infection and lack access not just to services, but to
their dignity
And as long as the epidemics underway in Eastern Europe and Central Asia continue to
expand, and the most basic elements of HIV Prevention are denied the people of that region
It is too soon to declare victory.
And today, our movement is threatened. By complacency, by declining funding, by the
continued refusal of too many governments to address the human rights and social justice
issues that drive HIV spread for marginalized communities.
So I want to us to ask something of ourselves, of each other, and of our leaders: let’s make
a real commitment to end AIDS. We need to fully fund the response. We need to support
civil society. We need to keep research funded to get to a cure and a vaccine. And we need
end the exclusion of our sexual and gender minorities, our sex workers, our drug users, the
people we imprison and detain, our vulnerable young. We’ve put these key requirements
into the Second Durban Declaration. Read it, and if you agree, sign it, use it, and pressure
your governments to implement it!
What gives me hope is all of you. This is the most remarkable, smart, diverse, loving, and
just community I know. If any movement can do it, we can. Together, let’s make Durban
another landmark—where real access, equity, and rights began to be real for all in need.