December 1, 2023
This World AIDS Day we at AVAC are reflecting on remarkable gains and increasing threats to progress against AIDS. Our latest issue of PxWire, tracking trends in research, development and delivery of HIV prevention options, speaks to this important progress:
- Global initiations of oral PrEP surpassed 5 million in 2023.
- Studies to implement the monthly dapvirine vaginal ring and the two-month injectable cabotegravirfor PrEP are ongoing in 22 countries, and we’ll see a 40% increase in doses of CAB available for these studies through 2025.
- The HIV prevention pipeline continues to evolve with new trials and an agenda for the research enterprise that leverages insights from recent trials.
- Five countries have reached the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets with more than 29 million people accessing treatment, and global incidence continuing to decline – in some places, among some populations.
However, as we look to 2024, all these gains could be imperiled by political and financial choices facing leaders today.
- Will the US Congress recognize the unparalleled success of PEPFAR and safeguard its funding through a clean 5-year reauthorization?
- Will global health stakeholders coordinate and commit to a new paradigm in delivering HIV prevention, one that will support the rollout of any option for HIV prevention and beyond?
- Will health officials and policy makers embrace the Choice Manifesto, created by HIV advocates and adopted by UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, calling for the essential investments that will bring these diverse options to the communities that need them most?
- Will champions for democracy, civil rights and evidence-based unite against a tide of increasing criminalization and persecution of the LGBTQ+ population?
The answers to these questions will require donors and political leaders to do the right thing, and it will depend on us, a global movement of advocates with a track record of world-changing achievements, to stay the course and build the road to reach everyone one of these goals. Below are a few key resources to support your work.
From the Lab to the Jab
A series of advocates guides on key issues to ensure equitable access to safe, effective, and affordable vaccines.
Call to Action for Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
A report on next steps to advance the role of VMMC in ending the epidemic.
Good Participatory Practice: Body of Evidence
An online package of resources to support advocacy for GPP as an international standard for clinical trials.
The HIV Prevention Choice Manifesto
A historic milestone in the power of community-led leadership and prioritization of choice in HIV prevention.
Progress Against HIV and AIDS is Fragile
POZ Magazine’s interview with Mitchell Warren, with a comprehensive look at the status of the fight against HIV/AIDS and the scientific breakthroughs to date and still needed to end the epidemic.
The Anti-HIV Jab is Coming to South Africa
Bhekisisa’s Mia Malan and AVAC’s Mitchell Warren breakdown what it will take to get injectable CAB for PrEP to everyone who needs it.
A Call to Action: Scale Up HPV Vaccination in People Living with HIV
In a new call to action, Mitchell Warren and Heather White, executive director of TogetHER for Health, argue that the time is now to invest in efforts to ensure that people living with HIV can live their lives without the threat of cervical cancer.
At AVAC, we believe it’s up to all of us to make sure the world does not squander another decade in slow, fragmented rollout of life-saving innovation in HIV prevention or risk underfunding research and development. If we work together to build equity into the rollout of options that exist already and support the promise of expanding choices in the near future, the world will at long last bend the curve of HIV.