Aberdeen City Council has pledged its support for the Fast Track Cities initiative as part of a global focus on HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Elected members agreed at a meeting of the full Council today (September 2) to join the worldwide network of cities working in partnership by signing the Paris Declaration.
The aim is to have all seven Scottish cities signed-up, with Aberdeen joining Glasgow in committing to the aims.
The Paris Declaration centres on 90-90-90 targets: To ensure that 90% of people living with HIV know their status, to improve access to antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV to 90% and to increase the proportion of people living with HIV on ART with an undetectable viral load to at least 90%.
The declaration also has a focus on reducing stigma and discrimination related to HIV to zero, with long term goals by 2030: Zero new HIV transmissions, zero HIV-related deaths, zero HIV-related stigma.
Aberdeen already meets the 90-90-90 targets but in making the decision to become a Fast Track City has acknowledged there is more work to do to reach the 2030 goals and reduce stigma, noting issues with reducing the incidence of late diagnosis of HIV, maintaining the number of people who are on treatment with antiretroviral treatment and ensuring that harder to reach groups are engaging with treatment and support.
The Council agreed at today’s meeting that tackling HIV stigma and maintaining and improving the treatment rates in Aberdeen meets the aims of the Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership’s Strategic Plan 2019-22, which promotes person-centred care and peer support and also the Resilient, Supported and Included aims of the Local Outcome Improvement Plan.
Elected members have recommended the Lord Provost of Aberdeen signs the Paris Declaration on behalf of the Council. The chief officer of the Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership has also been instructed to work with community planning partners to produce an action plan which will improve performance on the 90-90-90 targets and make progress towards the 2030 goals, reporting back to Community Planning Aberdeen and the Integration Joint Board on implementation of the action plan and work done as part of the Fast Track Cities initiative.
