Personal experience as a Covid survivor as well as a black woman living with HIV
Yvette Raphael, Executive Director of APHA (Advocates for Prevention of HIV), South Africa, shared her experience of not only living with HIV as a black woman since last 20 years, but also as a Covid-19 survivor. She said that "I carried 3 burdens- being black, being a woman and being poor. My journey started when I was diagnosed with HIV in the midst of HIV denialism and lack of political will in South Africa at that time. My involvement with HIV struggle started due to my experiencing stigma myself for being HIV positive. Never did I imagine that I would be infected with HIV and also recover after getting very sick from Covid-19 infection only a few days ago. Never did I imagine I would be at the centre of fighting for the rights of people living with HIV, fighting for access to HIV treatment and also be in the forefront of fighting for the research and development agenda."
She added that many countries and governments have spent billions of dollars on Covid-19 response, while diverting resources from HIV and TB - like TB is the poor cousin of HIV and Covid-19 is the rich aunt. We did not act how we should have acted! The biggest mistake was to not have proactively engaged the HIV sector globally and make community leaders part of the Covid-19 response. Leadership is needed at all levels. Community action and information must be available in real time for local responses and for communities to be able to act, embrace the science, and innovations while protecting human rights. Advocates and scientists must speak through to power. Now is the time to start planning for the next pandemic today, as it might be there tomorrow, alerted Yvette.
"Most of us have lost so many family members, friends, leaders globally to Covid-19 (as well as to HIV). I see faces where scientists see statistics. For us, our own lived experiences matter more than mere data. Treat people not as numbers, but as human beings so that HIV does not become a forgotten pandemic" was Yvette's important message to remember while we shape global health responses.
Germany's Angela Merkel speaks at IAS 2021
It would be pertinent to end this piece with some of the remarks made by Angela Merkel, the Federal Chancellor of Germany, (and a scientist herself) during her welcome address at #IAS2021. "The Covid-19 pandemic is not the first event to teach us that infectious diseases know no borders. AIDS has sadly been proof of this for decades. Infectious diseases confront us with global challenges. So the fight against these diseases is only conceivable in the form of worldwide cooperation. During the Covid-19 pandemic we have seen how international cooperation has enabled multiple effective vaccines to be developed in record time. However, we have also witnessed how in the shadow of the pandemic, the achievements made in the fight against HIV have slipped from our grasp. AIDS must not be allowed to fade into the background due to Covid-19. In fact the international community must redouble its efforts to reach the global SDGs relating to HIV, because the ongoing fight against AIDS too can succeed through global cooperation. Germany stands ready in its capacity as a hub for science and research to partner with others so that together we can continue to make progress in the fight against AIDS and other infectious diseases."
And as the US President Joe Biden told Dr Fauci, no matter what, we must follow the science. We may not be right all the time but if we are not, we are going to correct it and we are going to go in the right direction. That is going to be a pathway to ending this terrible pandemic.
Shobha Shukla - CNS
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