AIDS 2014Former President Bill Clinton told delegates at the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) that the global fight against HIV needs to find more economically efficient ways to combat new infections, according to a new release from AIDS 2014, which is taking place this week in Melbourne, Australia, and is organized by International AIDS Society (IAS).

 “Nobody left behind” was the theme of the conference’s third day, Wednesday, July 23. Both Clinton’s speech and the day’s symposiums and presentations focused on how to better serve marginalized groups in the epidemic as well as tackling the stigma, discrimination and criminalization that face people living with HIV around the world.

Clinton, who currently advocates for global health security through the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), said U.S. funding resources must be used more effectively to achieve the UNAIDS’ “90/90/90” targets by 2020: aiming for 90 percent of people with HIV to know their status, 90 percent of HIV-positive people to receive antiretroviral treatment and 90 percent of those on meds to have an undetectable viral load.

Achieving these goals, Clinton said, would entail delivering better HIV care in rural and remote areas, ending mother-to-child transmission of HIV—particularly those happening through breast-feeding—and launching programs that could better support HIV-positive people likely to drop out of care because of stigma.

The day’s conference activities also focused on improving health outcomes for injection drug users, sex workers, indigenous populations, transgender people, refugees and migrants, as well as those with tuberculosis coinfections. South East Asia was also lauded for its momentous political and cultural change in addressing its HIV response in the region.

To read the full AIDS 2014 release from day four of the conference, click here.

To check out POZ’s continuing coverage of AIDS 2014, click here.