Department of Health, Taipei City Government

In the late September 2023, Taipei City was invited to attend Fast-Track Cities conference 2023 and to share strategy for AIDS prevention and control. Delivered by Dr. Chien Chun Wang, Deputy Director of Kunming Prevention and Control Center (KPCC), Taipei City Hospital, the presentation focused on AIDS prevention and control strategies, including rapid diagnosis, early initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy, the use of single tablet regimen, treatment as a prevention , and pre-exposure prophylaxis. With these policies, new HIV infection cases have been greatly reduced in Taipei City.

Founded in 2014, Fast-Track Cities is an organization comprising four core partners, namely the joint workforce of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) and Paris city. To achieve the target 90-90-90 by 2020 (90% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression ), and seek to fulfill the goal of 95-95-95 by 2030. Globally, more than 300 cities have joined Fast-Track-Cities. Taipei City became a Fast-Track City member since March 2018, and achieved 90-97-95 in 2022.

Fast-Track-Cities hosts annual conferences to facilitate the sharing of successes, and discussions with experts and NGO representatives to assist member cities in reaching the 95-95-95 goal of UNAIDS. In this conference, attended by more than 750 representatives including mayors of European, American and African cities, Taipei City Mayor Wan-An Chiang spoke about the city’s policies on gender diversity friendly via a pre-recorded video. Meanwhile, Dr.Wang shared Taipei City’s strategies for AIDS prevention and control, including encouraging risk populations to receive screening, rapid diagnosis for those testing positive, link to medical systems, early initiation of a single tablet regimen, treatment as a prevention, and pre-exposure prophylaxis for negative cases.

KPCC is the AIDS prevention and control department under the supervision of the Taipei City Bureau of Health. Combination of medical service by Linsen, Chinese Medicine and Kunming Branch, KPCC provides integrated, one-stop (screening and therapeutic) service, and collaborates with sport centers, the Red House Square, colleges and universities and clinical laboratory to provide diverse screening service which ensures privacy, and assists positive case link to treatment in order to effectively reduce viral load and transmission risk. With these measures, new HIV infection cases have significantly decreased, and better than other cities in Taiwan since 2017.

Dr.Wang recommends screen for individuals with risk behaviors; they can contact KPCC for question about AIDS or booking anonymous screen.