Resumen Plan estratégico
When International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) was formed in 2003, fewer than 400,000 people were on antiretroviral treatment (ART) in low- and middle-income countries worldwide. Today, less than a decade later, that number has risen to more than 6 million. This remarkable development is due in large part to increased global and local advocacy for treatment (including for cheaper drugs), and strengthened community knowledge and access – both areas that ITPC has prioritized and excelled in delivering and supporting.
Yet despite these successes, only one-third of the 14.2 million people living with HIV (PLHIV) who need lifelong treatment today are receiving it, and substantial regional variability in access persists. In most of the global South treatment coverage is well below 50 percent, and in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, fewer than 1 in 5 persons in need are receiving ART. Treatment coverage for those needing 2nd and 3rd line ART is even lower. Moreover, new cases continue to outpace the number of people starting treatment: For every one new person on treatment, there are two newly infected persons.
Cautious optimism nevertheless pervades the HIV world. New evidence showing the prevention these trends and reinvigorate momentum toward universal access. Capitalizing on that massive new resource investments to support treatment scale-up and the development of ITPC Global Secretariat and Regional Network staff memberseffective comprehensive care systems. Numerous challenges must be understood and addressed at all levels in order to increase those investments at a time of economic uncertainty and retrenchment from ambitious development goals, including those associated with HIV. PLHIV communities as of HIV treatment must be able to access optimal treatment options and 2nd and 3rd line treatment, overcome social barriers to treatment access, possess knowledge to make informed healthcare decisions, and be active participants in sustained long-term treatment care and support services.
With its unique community-based structure and emphasis, operationalized through regional network structures, ITPC is well positioned to respond to these challenges and the HIV treatment and prevention opportunities waiting to be maximized. It will do this in the way it knows best: by investing in people living with HIV, and by supporting their ability to determine their own needs and take part in a meaningful manner in decisions that affect them. The ITPC Global Secretariat with its regional networks has elaborated and aligned its work under three overarching strategic directions to underpin their investment in scaling up treatment access (see overleaf). The mission of our work is to enable communities in need to access HIV treatment such that they may lead secure, longer, healthier and more productive lives.