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AMSTERDAM -- The 22nd International AIDS Conference will be "a powerful platform" to address the challenges still posed by HIV, according to Linda-Gail Bekker, MBChB, PhD, of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Cape Town, South Africa.
"The biggest barriers now to ending the epidemic are ideologically and politically driven," said Bekker, who is president of the International AIDS Society, which sponsors the biennial conference.
Speaking to reporters before the official opening, Bekker said the meeting "holds policy makers and donors accountable to the evidence."
"The end of AIDS," she said, "will only come from prioritizing science-based policies, ensuring adequate funding, and working hard together to be certain that no one is left behind."
Bekker said this year's conference will attract more than 15,000 delegates and will have a larger proportion of youth delegates than ever before.
Much of the burden of the HIV epidemic falls on young people, said Mercy Ngulube, 20, who founded the Children's HIV Association in Great Britain. Born with HIV, Ngulube said she's grateful for the progress made in treatment but concerned that the rate of progress appears to be slowing.
"We are still not close enough" to stopping the HIV/AIDS pandemic, she said.
Ngulube called for the torch to pass from the older generation of researchers and activists in a "relay race" that will involve young people "alongside those who have brought and so much work."
As a young person born with the virus, she said it's wondering to know that the tools exist to control HIV but at the same time saddening to know that many people can't employ those tools.
One important step forward would be wider establishment of universal healthcare programs, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, director general of the World Health Organization.
Universal healthcare, he told reporters, is not just insurance. Instead, he said, it "also means breaking down the barriers to access and ensuring that no one is left behind because of where they live or how they live."
It is "sobering" to see that despite all the progress in HIV, the world will likely not meet its target -- to get 90% of infected people diagnosed, 90% of those treated, and 90% of those with complete control of HIV replication.
"We're really behind in achieving these targets," he said.
Quinn Tivey, of the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and a grandson of the activist, said it's amazing to see the progress since Taylor spoke at the 1992 AIDS conference here, but worrisome that "we are at risk of not reaching critical goals."
He quoted Taylor as saying: "The fight against AIDS is not and must never be a fight against people; it is a fight of human beings against a virus."
"Those words continue to ring true," Tivey said.