He stressed upon enforcing 100% prevention of parent to child transmission. "When a woman gets pregnant she should get tested for HIV immediately, so that if diagnosed HIV positive she can get treated, and also the infant after being born. There is no reason for the disease to get transmitted at the time of birth from mother to child, as we now have the means to stop this transmission."
Confront sex trade and injecting drug use
"Sex trade is a reality in every country. We have to confront this directly (rather than hide it under the carpet) and test all sex workers--male or female-and make them aware to practice safe sex through condom use. Also, in almost every country there is an injecting drug culture and we cannot ignore that, as many IDUs are going out and having sex, and transmitting the disease even to non drug injectors. We have to seek this vulnerable population and teach them how to best protect them. In the US we have the needle exchange programme so that they use clean needles".
Stigma around HIV
Dr McDermott said that when he started working in this field, contracting HIV was like a death sentence. When he worked in Africa, almost everyday while going to the office he would see a funeral procession of someone who had died of AIDS.
However, "The advent of anti retroviral therapy (ART) changed it from a death sentence to a chronic disease like diabetes. But there is one major difference - while there is no stigma attached to diabetes, there still is a lot of stigma around HIV/AIDS in India and elsewhere, because people generally get it through sexual activity. Somehow, in every religion and in every culture there is a feeling that you got it because you did something wrong. We have to get beyond this stigma and deal with the disease. We have to take action to prevent its transmission".
Involve the politicians
Dr McDermott said that a lot of the onus to end AIDS by 2030, as envisaged in the sustainable development goals or SDGs, lies on the politicians. "Fighting HIV is an ongoing process. So unless we involve the government and politicians, the disease is bound to come back again. It is the politicians who decide how much money is to be spent and where. The cost to society and to governments of this epidemic is huge - not only in terms of human lives lost but also in economic terms. Politicians understand economic benefits more than human benefits. That is the essence of it all - it is not just about people and society but also about sound economic sense.
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