DURBAN: Young people can no longer be left behind and left out of the response to end HIV/Aids, says Elton John.
“It needs to stop, it needs to stop, it needs to stop here and now,” pleaded John at the International Aids Conference at the Durban ICC yesterday.
“If we want HIV programmes to work for young people, we can’t tell them what to do, what to think. We need to nurture their voices, your voices… make us listen to you. Tell us what your needs are and what skills and services you need and we’ll help you.”
According to statistics the singer quoted, in 2013 there were 2.1 million adolescents living with HIV. Now there were more than 200 000 new infections, a third of which were among adolescent girls.
In the same year 120 000 adolescents died from Aids-related illnesses, he said at the session titled “Ending Aids with the Voices of Youth”.
“Testing and treatment for adolescents living with HIV remains low. Children and adults under 16 years of age who are living with HIV are considerably less likely to receive treatment than adults.
“Fewer than a third of this group are receiving ART (antiretroviral treatment). For adolescents who know their status and are able to access treatment, many challenges remain. These include stigma and discrimination as well as the support to help them remain on treatment.”
He recalled how a young Princess Diana had really been touched by the global fight against Aids. “Rather than remain silent about the burgeoning stigma, she chose to give voice to the voiceless, to be brave and embrace those who needed love and care, and in doing so she changed the way the world saw Aids forever.”
John said he saw this same compassion and sense of responsibility for humanity in her son Prince Harry.
He said although he would always be a voice for HIV, as he went into his seventies, young people would not listen to him and so he was passing on the baton to Prince Harry. “We need people who identify with young people. Prince Harry, you are the person who can take this fight forward. ”
The singer said he believed young people had always been the voice of change, altering the status quo and reaching for a dream “that is big and bold”.
“Right here in South Africa, young people across this great country and their allies around the world used their voices and passion to help bring down apartheid and give birth to a new nation.
“When the Aids conference was in Durban 16 years ago… new voices like 12-year-old Nkosi Johnson demanded right here at this conference that people everywhere have access to life-saving treatment, not just those living in rich countries.
“South Africa had made a lot of progress since then, but the country and the world’s fight with Aids was not over.”
Harry declared that it was time for a new generation to step forward. “It is time for us to step up to make sure that girls and boys with HIV aren’t kept from playing with their friends, classmates and neighbours. It is time for us to step up and acknowledge that stigma and discrimination still act as the greatest barrier to us defeating this disease.”
He was confident that young people would rise to this challenge.
“Just imagine what would happen if in places life Lesotho and throughout Africa, children were given the tools to protect their health, to speak out against stigma and discrimination. In helping them fight HIV we will not only end this epidemic, we will change the direction of history for an entire generation.”