Interview with Peter Reiss in Trouw: ‘There is still a lot of work to do’

Newspaper Trouw interviewed Peter Reiss – AIDS2018 co-chairman and H-TEAM project leader – after the conference, which according to Reiss was ‘very meaningful’.

‘We have accomplished a lot, but there is still a lot of work to do. Even in a country such as the Netherlands, where the fight against AIDS is very well organized, every year some 400 or 500 people still contract an HIV infection. Those are still 400 or 500 too many.”

“We have learned that in the fight against AIDS, we need a lot of data. We used to look at the epidemic on a national level, but now we know that we must look at it on a much smaller scale – per region and per city. Or that we have to zoom in on specific groups, such as young girls or gay men. Who stays behind? This approach is being improved and is producing results. But we must stay alert. In Africa, the population is rejuvenating at a rapid speed. These are exactly the people who are discovering sexuality and who run an extra risk of contracting HIV. If there are insufficient measures in place to combat HIV, the number of infections will increase substantially.”

Read the rest of the interview here (Dutch only).