This week in New York, heads of state and health ministers from the around the world will make decisions that will impact the lives of millions of people. At the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS beginning June 8, officials are expected to hammer out a blueprint for the next decade of the global response to the epidemic. The meeting takes place exactly 30 years since the discovery of HIV/AIDS and ten years after HIV/AIDS treatment started in developing countries. 

It also follows closely on the heels of an immensely important medical finding. Just a few weeks ago new research supported by the US National Institutes of Health proved conclusively that treatment can reduce the transmission of HIV from one person to another by 96 percent. In other words, HIV treatment is also HIV prevention. This is something MSF has begun to see in its HIV projects, and having scientific confirmation of this evidence provides a crucial piece of support going forward.