At a high-level meeting on ending AIDS that opened at the United Nations General Assembly today, Member States adopted a new political declaration that includes a set of time-bound targets to fast-track the pace of progress towards combating the worldwide scourge of HIV and AIDS over the next five years and end the epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.

While much has been done over the past few years to halt and reverse the AIDS epidemic, the international community is set to gather for a three-day meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York later this week in order to propel the global response on a fast-track approach and chart the way towards ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The number of HIV-positive people taking antiretroviral medicines more than doubled to an estimated 17 million people from 2010 to 2015, with two million people gaining access to the life-saving drug last year alone, the United Nations agency leading the world’s HIV/AIDS response announced today.