ChinAfrica: How would you sum up the global campaign against HIV/AIDS in the past three decades?

Amakobe Caroline Sande: There has been a huge amount of progress over the last three decades, but there remain a lot of things to be done. Although we still have about 38 million people living with HIV worldwide, the discovery of antiretroviral medications has been a huge success story. I come from Africa, where I remember that every weekend we would go to funerals to bury people. That is not the case anymore, thanks in large part to antiretroviral medications.

But of all the people living with HIV globally, only 19.5 million are accessing treatment, slightly over half, and there are still many people who still do not have access to medications to give them a wholesome life. So the fight is not over and access to readily available medication is not complete. And why is that so? Because this is a disease that has a lot of stigma and discrimination surrounding it.

There have been huge advances in science and huge amounts of money mobilized for this disease, many partnerships have come together around HIV, and many institutions like mine have been created specifically to deal with this. So the question then is why we still have people out there who are not able to have access to readily available medications in 2017. Why do we still have deaths from HIV? The answer lies in stigma, in shame, in discrimination and in exclusion.

From your perspective, what still remains to be done to address the epidemic?

We still have huge populations and communities underground. This makes it difficult for us to achieve epidemic control. We still have a lot of things to do to reach every single person living with HIV, so they can have access to lifelong medication. Being on treatment is important for a person living with HIV, but what people still don't know is when that person is on proper treatment, the chances that they can transmit HIV to their sexual partners decrease by 96 percent.

That is why UNAIDS has come up with the 90-90-90 target, which means that we must make sure that 90 percent of people living with HIV know they are HIV positive. Once they know that they are HIV positive, we want at least 90 percent of them to receive treatment, and we want 90 percent of those who are receiving treatment to be doing well under the treatment. We want to reach that 90-90-90 objective globally by 2020.

About an eventual vaccine, let me say that we would really love to close down UNAIDS because a vaccine has been found. We don't want to be here forever. But while we look forward to a cure, let's not get caught up in slowing down our progress, because we have all the tools we need today to achieve epidemic control. We just need to go out there and do it. Because, like I said, I think stigma and discrimination are our single most important challenges.

How has China fared on the HIV/AIDS issue over the past few years?

Considering the size of its population, China has done impressive work to quickly get the epidemic under control. This can be explained by three things it has done right. First, the testing program in China is massive, and early testing is important, because it's the entry point to everything else. And testing at the scale that has been done in China has not been seen anywhere else in the world. China has also reached the objective of having 90 percent of infected people under treatment, and the efforts made by the Chinese Government on this issue are truly phenomenal.

I'm also excited about the fact that China has created a fund where the government gives money to NGOs to support them in the fight against HIV. I have seen that South Africa is just starting to do this. This is very important because in many countries, there is an antagonistic relationship between NGOs and the government. But in China, the government has said that NGOs are better at reaching communities and hidden populations. That's something we want to showcase to the rest of the world.

How do you reach out to people most at risk of infection, such as young people?

Now we are doing what is called population and location focus. Nowadays, we have data to show exactly where the next 100 infections are going to come from. So our approaches must be more targeted than they were in the past through pinpointing at a subnational level.

Moreover, the message and the service delivery methods must be tailored to the groups most at risk. What is effective for a particular group in a rural community will not be effective for another group in a city.

So we are constantly rewiring the ways in which we send out information. For example, we are partnering with organizations like Blued, which is the largest social media dating site for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people. Since young people respond to music, in many countries we are teaming up with musicians and idols.

How do you see the role of the Belt and Road Initiative in your efforts?

UNAIDS is interested in the Belt and Road Initiative, especially the Health Silk Road, because we believe it offers massive potential. This can be used as a platform to bring about an end to AIDS and it has become an area of priority in our work at UNAIDS.

Africa, for example, is a continent of great potential; but it also has a lot of challenges. While the economy is growing, the continent's infrastructure is still weak; its capacity is growing but it is still not adequate. Only 3 percent of Africa's medicine is produced on the continent. So, as a part of the Belt and Road Initiative, why don't we work with governments to support local medicine production on the continent? This could be win-win cooperation. Then, Africa would have medicine closer to its people, hopefully at affordable prices, which would also be good for companies in China.

I'm very pleased to say that we have started to address this issue and have made a lot of progress. Ethiopia is a country that has signed a deal as a result of UNAIDS collaboration. Discussion is ongoing with Kenya and in Uganda and we want to extend this work even further. On the side of China, we are working with Medicines Patent Pool, because we want to make sure that the medicine that has been produced in China can be certified to be sold in Africa and other low-income countries.