The next global AIDS conference will be held in South Africa to try to close the gap that still remains between the HIV/AIDS experience in the First and Third Worlds, the International AIDS Society says.
As the AIDS 2014 conference wrapped up in Melbourne on Friday, experts looked to the continuing challenges in the fight against the epidemic.
Despite significant gains and investment, South Africa remains the world's most affected country, incoming International AIDS Society president Chris Beyrer says.
"We try to put the conference in places where it will make a difference," Prof Beyrer told reporters on Friday.
"This is the place with the highest rate of women (with HIV).
"It is ground zero for women and HIV."
Durban, South Africa, was the first South African city to host an AIDS conference in 2000.
Prof Beyrer said the 2000 conference was a watershed moment for the fight against AIDS, and he hopes a similar milestone will be achieved in 2016.
Back then the effects of the treatments developed in 1996 were starting to be seen around the world, Prof Beyrer said.
"We had the Lazarus effect. People who were very close to the end of AIDS were getting better, getting out of bed, going back to work and starting to live their lives," Prof Beyrer said.
But 95 per cent of the people receiving therapy for HIV/AIDS were in the First World.
Prof Beyrer said much had been achieved since then but more needed to be done.
"But we're only halfway there," Prof Beyrer said.
"We have an enormous effort ahead of us."
South Africa Human Sciences Research Council chief executive Olive Shisana said deaths in Africa had been reduced and mother to child transmission has been cut since the 2000 conference.
"At that conference there were still many debates about whether HIV caused AIDS," Prof Shisana said.
"There was another major debate about whether Africans should get access to therapy or should they just continue to prevent and not get treatment."
She said to achieve better outcomes in Africa, defeating discrimination was crucial.
