News
Fast Track Cities Initiative
On the eve of World AIDS Day, leaders from across Greater Manchester reaffirmed their commitment to ending all new transmissions of HIV within a generation.
At the 2018 Manchester Pride Candlelit Vigil, the Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, unveiled the plan for the city-region to become part of the Fast-Track Cities Network and set out the bold ambition to end all new cases of HIV in Greater Manchester residents in the next 25 years. The leaders of Greater Manchester’s ten local authorities came together with key local stakeholders, people living with HIV, and Jose M. Zuniga, the President of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, to reaffirm the commitment in the fight against HIV.
As a Fast Track City, Greater Manchester has joined more than 250 other cities across the world to take combined action, share best practice and tackle HIV related stigma and discrimination. It will allow enhanced efforts towards Greater Manchester ambitions and support a global approach to a local response by engaging city political, health and social care leaders, as well as city institutions not traditionally involved in testing or treatment.
Greater Manchester has signed up to the Initiative’s 90-90-90 targets, where 90 percent of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90 percent of people diagnosed are on treatment, and 90 percent of people on treatment are virally suppressed and therefore cannot transmit HIV to someone who is HIV negative (TasP). Greater Manchester has also committed to having zero discrimination and stigma by 2020.