Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and founding director of UNAids, will deliver the IDS Annual Lecture 2018 on ‘Can we end the aids epidemic? The need for a development approach’.
As a result of widespread mobilisation and improved access to affordable antiretroviral therapy, remarkable progress has been made in the HIV/AIDS response in many countries, recognition of which has inspired global calls to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Yet with nearly two million people newly infected with HIV in 2016 and one million AIDS-related deaths in the same year, the end of AIDS remains elusive.
Amidst indications of diminishing funds and weakening global resolve, growing complacency could result in a resurgence of the epidemic, particularly in the context of the world’s largest-ever generation of young people. Drawing on his more than 25 years of experience working on HIV/AIDS, Professor Peter Piot will discuss the interrelated relationship between HIV/AIDS and development, arguing that renewed efforts are needed to address the social, political, and economic drivers of HIV and vulnerability.
He will call for reinvigorated efforts to expand HIV prevention just as we saw with the unprecedented global scale-up of treatment, while maintaining that AIDS is a long-term challenge facing society that requires a development approach to address.
About the speaker
Professor Peter Piot is the Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and the Handa Professor of Global Health. He is the first Chair of the UK Government Strategic Coherence of ODA Funded Research Board. He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations (1995-2008).
The IDS Annual Lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in partnership with the HIV/AIDS Alliance.
This is a public lecture and all are welcome to attend. Register to attend or watch online.
