In 1983, I began my career in health-care as a trainee in a hospital in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was here that I first encountered large numbers of patients with HIV. Back then, the disease had no name, no explanation, and no treatment. In essence, it was a death sentence.
Since that time, the global scientific community has made huge progress in the fight against HIV. We have characterised the disease, we understand its mechanisms, we know how it is transmitted and we have dozens of treatment options. People around the world can now keep their disease under control with one pill a day and live an almost-normal life span. But this is not enough to win the fight against HIV.
Since I was last in Africa just 100 days ago, nearly 110,000 adolescent girls and young women would have been newly infected with HIV, with about 70% of the infections occurring in the poorest communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is staggering and heart-wrenching.
I think about the challenges these young women now face. The opportunities they may miss. The stigma they may encounter. The type of future that lies ahead of them and the inevitable impact their diagnosis will have on their families and communities.
As part of the 2016 UN Political Declaration on Ending Aids, the global community committed to reducing HIV infections among girls, equipping them with knowledge and tools to prevent them from contracting it, and to providing the necessary health-care services for those who are infected. The goal is to achieve all this by 2020. Just two more years to drive real change. Two years to transform the lives of millions of young women.
Getting there is not something one organisation, government or NGO can achieve on its own. It requires collaboration, sustained effort and increased resources - a truly global effort.
Many organisations - including Johnson & Johnson, the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, the Elton John Aids Foundation, Dr Glenda Gray of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), mothers2mothers and others - are working in partnership to develop both the educational programmes and practical tools girls need to reduce their risk of infection.
For example, the DREAMS programme, which aims to help girls in 10 high-risk Sub-Saharan African countries develop into Determined, Resilient, Empowered, Aids-free, Mentored and Safe women, is helping to reduce the number of infections.
In addition to successful programmes that reduce infections through education and overcoming stigma associated with HIV, the world today is starting to reap the benefits of more than three decades of investment in science and technology for HIV prevention. The prevention field has expanded to include newly approved medicines for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP), an HIV-preventative vaginal ring and long-acting prevention-focused injectables.
All of this work is incredibly important because we will not be able to solve HIV with just one approach. It will require a combination of multiple strategies. The health-care community now must work together to implement these novel solutions.
And yet . despite the great strides in understanding HIV and the multiple available treatment options, it remains an epidemic and one of the greatest threats to global public health. Furthermore, we must remember an equally devastating epidemic, tuberculosis, which is one of the leading causes of death among people with HIV. The dual epidemics of TB and HIV are particularly pervasive in Africa, where HIV has been the most important contributing factor in the increasing incidence of TB over the past 10 years. The world must continue to push for a definitive end to these "twin epidemics".
Ultimately, we will not beat HIV without a vaccine. This is why Johnson & Johnson is working with a global consortium of partners to advance a preventative HIV vaccine with the ultimate goal of eliminating the disease altogether. Our Imbokodo trial kicked off in SA in 2017, with the South African medical community and champions such as Dr Gray of the SAMRC being key partners in the effort. We are grateful to them, the frontline health-care workers on the ground who are implementing the trial, as well as to the thousands of women who, through their participation in the trial, have bravely joined the fight against HIV.
In addition to Imbokodo, two other vaccine trials - HVTN702 and the AMP studies - are going on in SA, putting the country in the lead of the global war against HIV. And, in July 2018, SA became the first country in the world to recommend an injection-free treatment regimen for multi-drug-resistant TB. Backed by new data, this decision demonstrated the country's strong commitment to ensuring patients receive the best possible care, and set the bar for TB response for the rest of the world. SA is a true global citizen.
And, of course, we must not lose sight of the need for a cure for the millions of people around the world are already infected with HIV and who face a lifetime of treatment.
Having seen the world accomplish so much in the past three decades, I am optimistic that with continued science and technology innovation, sustained investment and enduring collaboration among the global community, HIV can be ended.
Now, as global citizens, we must raise our voices, rally investment and demand the action needed to change the trajectory of HIV.
We must do this for the young women and girls growing up in the poorest communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, and for everyone, everywhere. Only by harnessing the commitment, creativity and passion of every global citizen across the world will we make HIV history.
• Dr Stoffels is vice-chair of the executive committee and chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson, the major health partner for social action platform Global Citizen..