Six Fast-Track Cities in the United Kingdom – Aberdeen, Bristol, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Liverpool – as well as Berlin have surpassed the HIV 90-90-90 targets, which are recognized as a starting point on a trajectory towards the goal of achieving zero new HIV infections and zero AIDS-related deaths.

Berlin, which signed the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities in July 2016, is now the 12th Fast-Track City in Europe to surpass the 90-90-90 targets by attaining 90-90-96. The progress of the six other UK cities follows London’s 2018 achievement of being the first Fast-Track City globally to surpass the 90-90-90 targets. Ultimately, so, too, did Amsterdam, Brighton and Hove, Geneva, Manchester, and New York City. Of note, London also surpassed the UNAIDS HIV 95-95-95 targets in 2019, with 95% of PLHIV knowing their status, 98% of PLHIV who know their status accessing ART, and 97% of PLHIV on ART achieving viral suppression.

IAPAC also welcomed the cities of Madeira, Portugal; Seine-Saint-Denis, France; Lima, Peru (pictured above); and Latina, Italy (pictured below) to the global Fast-Track Cities network over the past month. 

Mayor Damiano Coletta signed the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities on behalf of the City of Latina, Italy, at a virtual ceremony on December 17, 2020.

Since 2018, IAPAC and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have advanced a joint project across 15 Fast-Track Cities, primarily in Africa, but also Jakarta, Jamaica, and the Ukraine. IAPAC has focused on advancing four strategic objectives, including data generation/reporting, capacity-building for peer educators and clinicians on HIV prevention and care continua optimization and stigma elimination, as well as assessments of health-related quality of care delivered to people living with HIV (PLHIV).

Following is a by-the-numbers breakdown of IAPAC’s contributions towards the joint UNAIDS-IAPAC Fast-Track Cities Project in 2020 (as of November 30, 2020):

“We are very proud of the work that IAPAC program staff and our City Program Officers are advancing across the 15 Fast-Track Cities in this project, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said IAPAC President/CEO Dr. José M. Zuniga. “While the Fast-Track Cities initiative is predicated on being catalytic, we must support a catalytic reaction that facilitates closing gaps across HIV prevention and treatment continua and ensures structural and other barriers, including stigma, are eliminated.”

Now in its third year of operation, the joint UNAIDS-IAPAC Fast-Track Cities Project is supported through grants from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), in collaboration with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis.

*The peer education trainings are a joint activity of IAPAC and the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC). Trainings commenced in September 2020.

IAPAC Releases Virtual Fast-Track Cities 2020 Report

In the seventh month of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has presented the most unprecedented public health, economic, and social challenges in modern times, more than 1,400 delegates from 410 cities and municipalities convened September 9-10, 2020, for the Virtual Fast-Track Cities 2020 conference.

Sponsored by the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), in collaboration with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the virtual conference replaced a scheduled in-person gathering of cities and municipalities that are signatories to the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities Ending the HIV Epidemic.

Made possible through support from Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, and the Fast-Track Cities Institute, the 2020 conference was a sequel to the inaugural Fast-Track Cities 2019 conference, which took place in London. Both conferences aimed to foster peer-to-peer best practice-sharing among the various constituencies engaged in accelerating their urban HIV, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis responses.

IAPAC released the Virtual Fast-Track Cities 2020 conference report online today.

The COVID-19 in the Americas conference continued its series of panel discussions in December 2020 about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people living in the Western Hemisphere. The South Florida Gay News reported on one of the sessions, which explored how LGBTQ activism has changed in the wake of the public health response to COVID-19.

Be sure you are registered for periodic announcements about upcoming panels in 2021. If you have missed a live session since the conference's start, you can follow the link below to load the conference playlist on YouTube.

COVID-19 in The Americas is sponsored by the AHF Global Public Health Institute and the Institute of Advanced Study of The Americas (both at the University of Miami) and IAPAC.

IAPAC President/CEO Dr. José M. Zuniga congratulated six Scottish Fast-Track Cities on reaching the UNAIDS HIV 90-90-90 targets during his remarks during the closing plenary of the Fast-Tracking Scotland summit held virtually on December 9, 2020.

"As we look at the global HIV epidemic, we encounter the reality of 690,000 AIDS-related deaths annually and that fact, in many respects, is an indictment on our global HIV response. So, too, is the fact that 12.6 million people living with HIV globally still lack access to antiretroviral therapy (ART)," said Dr. Zuniga. "Although we have seen a decrease in AIDS-related mortality, and although we have done a good job of expanding the universe of people living with HIV who are accessing ART, we still have quite a bit to go. It is one of the reasons we continue to push the commitments in the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities based on our belief that when we recruit a critical mass of Fast-Track Cities in a country, we can have an impact on a national HIV epidemic."

Dr. Zuniga was joined on the Closing Panel by former Scottish Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick; Dr. Nicoletta Policek, Chair of HIV Scotland; Dr. Leena Sathia, HIV Medical Director for Gilead Sciences, United Kingdom and Ireland; and Nathan Sparling, Chief Executive of HIV Scotland.

IAPAC Announces Dates for Adherence 2021 Conference

Following this year's virtual conference, the 16th International Conference on HIV Treatment and Prevention Adherence (Adherence 2021) will return to Florida on June 13-15, 2021, in Orlando. Contingency planning is underway in the event COVID-19 requires a transition to virtual conferences.

IAPAC is also proud to announce that the Adherence 2021 conference co-chairs will be Dr. Jane Simoni (University of Washington, Seattle, WA) and Dr. Till Bärnighausen (University of Heidelberg, Germany). Information regarding registration and abstract submission guidelines are available on the IAPAC website. Regular updates regarding the conference program and confirmed faculty will be provided in early- and mid-2021.