01 Dec 2016
Victoria and the City of Melbourne Launch Fast-Track Cities Dashboard
The State of Victoria and City of Melbourne have marked World AIDS Day 2016 with the launch of a web-based dashboard as part of the Fast-Track Cities initiative to track progress towards achieving UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets to end AIDS.
Fast-Track Cities is a global partnership between municipalities and four core partners – International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), UNAIDS, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the City of Paris. Since its launch on World AIDS Day 2014 in the City of Paris, cities in every region of the world have signed the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities Ending the AIDS Epidemic, pledging to accelerate their AIDS responses to attain the UNAIDS 90-90-90[1] and zero stigma and discrimination targets. Attaining these targets will contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ending AIDS as a global public health threat by 2030.
A collaboration between the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, the City of Melbourne and Fast-Track Cities Taskforce members Alfred Health, Victorian AIDS Council, Burnet Institute, Living Positive Victoria, North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network and the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, the dashboard will be a living tool for physicians, HIV clinics, the public health community and people living with HIV to help accelerate local HIV education, prevention and care to achieve 90-90-90 targets by 2020. Victoria has exceeded two of the three targets with 89.9% of people living with HIV knowing their status, 93.8% on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and 92.7% of people receiving ART with viral suppression.
Victorian Minister for Health Jill Hennessy said, “The UNAIDS 90-90-90 HIV treatment targets by 2020 are ambitious, but we as a city, and as a Government, have an obligation to do everything we can to achieve them.
“This global dashboard is a terrific step forward in tracking our progress towards these targets.
“We will continue to work side by side with affected communities, sector partners, scientists and researchers to further expand our efforts to remove barriers to prevention, testing, treatment, care and support, and stamp out stigma and discrimination wherever we see it.”
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of Melbourne Cr Robert Doyle said, “The 20th International AIDS Conference 2014 in Melbourne left a lasting scientific, social and cultural legacy for our city, including the signing of the Melbourne Declaration. I am pleased that the City of Melbourne is continuing that great work by being the first Australian City to join the Fast Track Cities Initiative and participate in its new online dashboard.
“Congratulations to the Taskforce members, led by the formidable Professor Sharon Lewin for implementing this latest tool which will provide us and our global partners with more information pertinent to fighting the spread of HIV and enable us to share resources about preventative programs and initiatives.”
The Victorian dashboard forms part of the Fast-Track Cities global web portal into which all city dashboards connect including Amsterdam, Denver, Kiev, Miami, São Paulo, Paris and San Francisco with additional launches planned throughout 2017. These cities are committed to addressing the public health challenge of urban HIV and, as such, are ideally placed to take transformative action that can be matched globally.
The launch of Victoria’s dashboard has been made possible through a global collaboration between ViiV Healthcare and IAPAC to help advance Fast-Track Cities’ goals:
- Attain Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 targets
- Increase utilisation of combination prevention
- Reduce the negative impact of discrimination and stigma
- Monitor and report progress through a standardised approach
“Fast-Track Cities are accelerating their local AIDS responses toward the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030,” said the IAPAC President/Chief Executive Officer, José M. Zuniga. “Our collaborative city-specific approach and real-time data generation afford us a precise understanding of gaps in city responses, which we are helping to address through targeted strategies to increase HIV testing, prevention, treatment and care.”
About Fast-Track Cities
Fast-Track Cities is a global partnership between the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the City of Paris, in collaboration with local, national, regional and international implementing and technical partners. Combining the efforts of city governments, Mayors, affected communities, local health departments and clinical service providers, the initiative aims to build upon, strengthen and leverage existing HIV programmes and resources in order to accelerate locally coordinated, city-wide responses to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. To date over 60 cities have joined Fast-Track Cities (www.iapac.org/cities).
[1] UNAIDS 90-90-90 is an ambitious treatment target to help end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Interim targets by 2020 include ensuring that 90% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status. By 2020, 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy. By 2020, 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.