LONDON and WASHINGTON, May 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Collaboration will focus on 16 cities where HIV is highly prevalent and will help monitor progress towards the attainment of UNAIDS 90-90-90 and zero discrimination and stigma targets 

ViiV Healthcare and the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) today announced a global collaboration to support 16 cities from around the world that are participating in Fast-Track Cities. This collaboration between ViiV Healthcare and IAPAC is designed to help advance Fast-Track Cities goals to build upon, strengthen, and leverage their existing HIV programmes and resources to:

• Attain Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 targets^[1]
• Increase utilisation of combination prevention: a mix of effective and proven HIV prevention interventions, including condom provision, and the immediate initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)
• Reduce to zero the negative impact of discrimination and stigma, including in healthcare settings
• Monitor and report progress through a standardised approach to data generation, analysis, and reporting that embraces local and global accountability and the use of "open data"

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The ViiV Healthcare and IAPAC collaboration focuses on the increased generation, analysis, and dissemination of data across the patient care pathway - also known as the HIV care continuum - from infection and diagnosis, to treatment and care, all the way to the result of a suppressed viral load in patients, to achieve the therapeutic and preventative benefits of ART.

The collaboration focuses on 16 cities where HIV is highly prevalent (Amsterdam, Atlanta, Bangkok, Brussels, Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Dar es Salaam, Denver, Durban, Geneva, Kingston, Miami, Nairobi, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and San Francisco). In addition to the provision of technical assistance to local health departments, each of the Fast-Track Cities will receive a dedicated web-based dashboard for city-wide stakeholders and the public health community to both monitor and provide feedback on progress made towards attaining targets. The dashboards will also allow participating cities to see the progress made and strategies deployed in the other cities, and to directly connect with each other through a global Fast-Track Cities web portal into which all city dashboards connect.

José M. Zuniga, PhD, MPH, IAPAC's President/CEO, summarised the new collaboration with ViiV Healthcare: "IAPAC has long valued partnerships with a variety of stakeholders. ViiV Healthcare will provide crucial support by helping us meet our objective of generating critical HIV care continuum data in 16 Fast-Track Cities that they can utilise to fast-track their local AIDS responses, and attain the 90-90-90 and zero discrimination and stigma targets. Our collaboration with ViiV Healthcare is an important means of maximising resources by leveraging rich experience and skills with the aim of achieving our collective goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030."

Dominique Limet, CEO, ViiV Healthcare said: "With this partnership, ViiV Healthcare is proud to contribute to the increased understanding of the HIV epidemic and effective interventions across the care continuum. There are still many gaps in our knowledge and understanding of how best to address the rapidly evolving HIV epidemic."

About Fast-Track Cities 

Fast-Track Cities is a global partnership between the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the City of Paris, in collaboration with local, national, regional and international implementing and technical partners. Combining the efforts of city governments, Mayors, affected communities, local health departments and clinical service providers, the initiative aims to build upon, strengthen and leverage existing HIV programmes and resources in order to accelerate locally coordinated, city-wide responses to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. To date 65 cities have joined Fast-Track Cities (http://www.iapac.org/cities).

About ViiV Healthcare  

ViiV Healthcare is a global specialist HIV company established in November 2009 by GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) dedicated to delivering advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV. Shionogi joined as a 10% shareholder in October 2012. The company's aim is to take a deeper and broader interest in HIV/AIDS than any company has done before and take a new approach to deliver effective and new HIV medicines, as well as support communities affected by HIV. For more information on the company, its management, portfolio, pipeline and commitment, please visit http://www.viivhealthcare.com.

About IAPAC  

The International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) represents more than 27,500 clinicians and allied health care professionals in over 150 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of HIV prevention, care, treatment, and support services provided to men, women, and children affected by and living with HIV and comorbid conditions such as tuberculosis and viral hepatitis. For more information, please visit http://www.iapac.org.

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1. UNAIDS 90-90-90 is an ambitious treatment target to help end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Interim targets by 2020 include ensuring that 90% of all PLHIV will know their HIV status. By 2020, 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustainedantiretroviral therapy. By 2020, 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.   

SOURCE ViiV Healthcare and the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC)