Carlos del Rio, MD, professor of medicine in the Emory Division of Infectious Diseases and Hubert Professor and Chair of the Hubert Department of Global Health at Rollins School of Public Health, recently spoke at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) “90-90-90 and Human Resources for Health” meeting in New York on June 9.
del Rio is co-director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research and chair of the HIV Medicine Association of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
90-90-90 is the ambitious treatment target developed by UNAIDS to help end the AIDS epidemic: “By 2020, 90 percent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status. By 2020, 90 percent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy. By 2020, 90 percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.”
In his remarks, del Rio said: “New patients still come in and the ones on therapy will continue under our care for the rest of their lives because, as a patient said to me once, while AIDS is not a death sentence anymore, it is a life sentence. So we need to stop new infections, as there are simply not enough health care workers globally to care for those who we are saving and those who are still getting infected.”
“We are at a critical moment in public health,” said del Rio. “While I am in total support of 90-90-90, and HIV prevention and care is my passion, I have to also push for strengthening health care systems and training the health care workers needed to care for diseases from AIDS to Zika, without forgetting non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension that are already a major cause of disability-adjusted life years in many low- and middle-income countries.”
About Carlos del-Rio, MD
Carlos del Rio, MD is the Hubert Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine . He is also Program Director of the Emory AIDS International Training and Research Program and co-Director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). Learn more about Dr. del-Rio.
Related Links
- Carlos del Rio, MD biography
- Emory University School of Medicine
- Emory University Department of Medicine
