<bold>The end of HIV - can it become a reality</bold>?

For the first time, we can formulate the question of the date of the end of the VIHIAIDS pandemic. A whole pallet of effective biomedical interventions has been set up, such as wide access to antiretroviral treatment for all affected people, a wide range of screening tools targeted to reach people without knowledge of their status, possibility of pre exposure treatment or PrEP targeting people at risk of acquiring VIH the prevention therapy of mother-to-child transmission, and voluntary male circumcision, one of the most sustainable tools of prevention. To reflect the political will, UNAIDS has defined recently the Objectives 90190190 for 2020: 90 % of the people affected by VIH will know their status, 90 % of VIH carriers will have received an antiretroviral treatment, 90 % of those under treatment will have an undetectable viral load. To turn the tide of the epidemic, a lot remains to be done in order to implement in practice the above listed interventions. Although almost all of the 1st line antiretrovirals have become generic drugs, allowing to reduce their cost of more 90 % as compared with Northern countries, mobilization of further funding is needed to scale up access to coverage. Other major challenges, such as new models of services delivery as close as possible to affected people, which should handle them into care, allow continuity of care, include the most precarious populations, children and teenagers, are other major issues, just as important. Besides these questions, remain more fundamental ones such as the search for a vaccine, and for viral eradication. A first assessment in 2020 will allow to follow the progress accomplished and to fix more precise targets for the decade which will follow.