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The 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) has ended in Melbourne, Australia with a call on governments and organisations to step up the pace in delivering universal access to the treatment and care for people with HIV and the prevention of the virus. At the closing ceremony, the outgoing President of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and Co-Chair of AIDS 2014, Professor Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, eulogised the delegates who were killed in the Malaysian Flight MH17 disaster while on their way to the conference. He also called on the world to unite to improve global health, stating, �The mobilisation against AIDS is also a strong driver to advance other areas such as human rights. There will be no end to AIDS without ensuring respect and dignity for all people, equity in access to health services and social justice.� Increased support The local Co-Chair of the conference, Australia�s Prof Sharon Lewin, also called for increased support and cooperation. �This week, we have heard all the great progress but there is still much work to be done. In order for us to change an epidemic to low-level infection, we need an individualised approach to address key hot spots; we need strong focus on specific geographic areas and key affected populations that continue to experience the highest number of infections,� he told the delegates. Delivering the keynote address, musician and activist Sir Bob Geldof called for increased funding for HIV programmes and services. �I am dismayed that you people, after such great scientific and global health success, still have to beg for cash. On this last mile, on this last hurdle, we cannot allow indifference and incapable governance to stop the final victory which is coming,� he said. Persons living with HIV Speaking on behalf of people living with HIV, Australian John Manwaring urged people from communities affected by HIV to be fearless advocates. �Every day, those of us living with HIV have to contend with fear and the irrational and often cruel reactions it incites. But as I�ve heard people speaking over this past week, I have realised an undeniable truth: we are more powerful than we know. �When those of us living with HIV come out into the light and share our stories, we dispel the fear, the stigma and the hate in their eyes. We are no longer stereotypes and statistics: we are human,� he stressed. Biggest challenges The incoming IAS President, Professor Chris Beyrer, said two of the biggest challenges facing the global HIV response were the lack of access to effective treatment for millions of people from around the world and a new wave of discriminatory laws and policies which were excluding people from treatment and care. He pledged that inclusion for all who needed and wanted HIV services would be a fundamental focus of his leadership. In her address at the closing ceremony, the local Co-Chair of AIDS 2016, Professor Olive Shisana, noted that sub-Saharan Africa still shouldered a vastly disproportionate burden of the HIV epidemic, with high prevalence and mortality. �The past three decades of HIV/AIDS has taught us that the disease does not discriminate but people and governments do. A renewed engagement with decision makers across the continent on the issues of human rights will be unavoidable if we are to move towards ending AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and build on the huge gains that we have made over the past 15 years,� she said. The next International AIDS Conference will take place in Durban in South Africa in 2016.