Fast-Track Cities Gain Momentum in Efforts to Attain 90-90-90

For Immediate Release
December 4, 2018

Contact: Ace Robinson, MPH

Fast-Track Cities Gain Momentum in Efforts to Attain 90-90-90

12 Fast-Track City Dashboards launched on World AIDS Day

4 December 2018 (Washington, DC, USA) – Launched four years ago, the Fast-Track Cities initiative has as one of its objectives to assist cities to generate and report data related to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 targets. The International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), one of the initiative’s core technical partners, today launched data dashboards for 12 Fast-Track Cities from multiple regions of the world, which report HIV care continuum baseline data for all cities and 90-90-90 data for eight cities. Ten additional cities updated their previously reported baseline data, demonstrating continued momentum in efforts to attain and surpass the 90-90-90 targets.

Fast-Track Cities is a global partnership between highly HIV-affected cities and four core partners – UNAIDS, IAPAC, the City of Paris, and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) –with international partners and stakeholders focused on reducing local, national, and regional impact of HIV. More than 250 cities have signed the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities committing to reach the initiative’s 90-90-90 and zero stigma and discrimination targets by 2020.

The Fast-Track Cities approach includes utilizing epidemiological and programmatic data to efficiently respond to local HIV epidemics. IAPAC assists cities to generate and report their progress in helping their respective inhabitants/city-dwellers to access HIV testing and, if found to be living with HIV, to initiate antiretroviral therapy (ART) and achieve viral suppression. These data are readily available to view via city-specific dashboards that reside on the Fast-Track Cities global web portal. The dashboards and web portal are curated by IAPAC and Dure Technologies, the association’s information technology partner.

“Thanks to the work of dedicated political and community leaders in Fast-Track Cities around the globe, we are witnessing unprecedented momentum towards attaining and surpassing the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets,” said Dr. José M. Zuniga, IAPAC President/CEO. “In publishing baseline and, subsequently, updated 90-90-90 data, the Fast-Track Cities dashboards communicate local and global momentum and hold stakeholders accountable for their progress.”

The UNAIDS theme for World AIDS Day 2018 is Know Your Status. The theme aligns directly with the first 90 target (awareness of HIV status) to empower all people living with HIV, but particularly those disproportionately affected by HIV, to access equitable care, treatment, and support services once they know their HIV status.

“This World AIDS Day not only encourages everyone to know their HIV status, it also marks 30 years of activism and solidarity. The Fast-Track Cities initiative embodies this activism and solidarity to ensure that everyone in cities can be reached with life-saving HIV services, a basic building block for urban health and a critical milestone in our journey towards ending AIDS,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

Twelve Fast-Track Cities dashboards were launched today for the cities of Athens, Bamako, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Johannesburg, Kingston, Libreville, Montréal, Oakland/Alameda County, and Quezon City. Each city’s dashboard features baseline HIV care continua and/or 90-90-90 data.

Following are 90-90-90 data reported by eight of the Fast-Track Cities by geographic region:

*NA refers to data that have not yet been reported
*Four cities (Bamako, Dar es Salaam, Durban/eThekwini, Oakland/Alameda County) did not report 90-90-90 data but did report partial HIV care continuum data on their respective Fast-Track City dashboards

Several Fast-Track Cities updated their previously reported HIV care continua and/or 90-90-90 data from prior years. In nine of the 10 cities, progress was reported across one or more of the 90 targets and/or in relation to HIV care continuum indicators. Among the cities with the most pronounced progress are Bangkok (increase from 79% in 2016 to 91% in 2018 of people living with HIV aware of their HIV status); Kyiv (increase from 44% in 2016 to 66% in 2017 of ART coverage among people living with HIV aware of their status); and New Orleans (increase from 91% in 2016 to 97% in 2017 of people living with HIV on ART achieving viral suppression). London has attained the initiative’s subsequent 95-95-95 targets (95-98-97), and Nairobi County is the first jurisdiction to report 100% of PLHIV who know their status are on ART.

Following are updated 90-90-90 data for 10 Fast-Track Cities that had previously reported these data:

*NA refers to data that have not yet been reported
*San Antonio/Bexar County launched their dashboard earlier this year with 86-72-86 (2017) as their “90-90-90” targets

The Fast-Track City dashboards launched today were made possible through grant support from ViiV Healthcare, the MAC AIDS Fund, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Merck & Co., and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

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About Fast-Track Cities

Cities bear a large share of the global HIV burden. In countries with large HIV epidemics, the numbers of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in urban areas are so high that effective city-level action is likely to influence national outcomes. Even where an HIV epidemic is smaller, cities are home to large numbers of people belonging to key populations at higher risk of HIV, but which often receive limited attention in HIV programs. The Fast-Track Cities is a global partnership between more than 250 high HIV burden cities, the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the city of Paris. The initiative was launched on World AIDS Day 2014 in Paris. For more information please visit: www.iapac.org/fast-track-cities

About the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC)

IAPAC was founded more than three decades ago with a mission to improve access to, and the quality of, prevention, care, treatment, and support services deliver to people living with and affected by HIV and comorbid diseases, including tuberculosis and viral hepatitis (HBV and HCV). With more than 30,000 members globally, IAPAC is the largest association of clinicians and allied health professionals who are working to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. For more information, please visit: www.iapac.org