March 24, 2026
AVAC Impact Reports highlight the power of advocacy, research translation, and partnership to advance HIV prevention and global health equity. Read also about the introduction of lenacapavir (LEN) for PrEP in Zambia and how AVAC and partners are standing up for science.
By Grace Tetteh
In an era of misinformation and scientific skepticism, access to credible, clear information on HIV is critical. Principles of Good Participatory Practice (GPP) in research and rollout hinge on data being accessible, understandable, and actionable. Yet the gap persists between global scientific forums, like the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), and the information broader audiences can actually access, digest, and act on. To meet this need, AVAC translates complex science into accessible resources and ensures it reaches advocates, communities, and decision-makers to advance strong, community-centered HIV prevention research, policies, and rollout plans. From proactively disseminating resources for use at CROI, to convening real-time discussion spaces, and sharing digestible recaps and first-person perspectives from staff attending the conference, AVAC served as a key source for close watchers of HIV science news.
AVAC ensures the science of HIV research reaches a broad audience as the conference is unfolding. Each day during CROI, AVAC, EATG, Fiocruz, TAG, and other partners hosted Community Breakfast Clubs (CBC), virtual webinars featuring researchers and advocates breaking down important prevention, treatment and cure science presented at CROI and the implications for the field. AVAC leveraged its network to coordinate high-level researchers and implementers into these curated sessions. Hosted each morning of the conference, the CBCs provide an accessible space for all, designed to extend conference conversations beyond the meeting itself, especially during a period of significantly heightened barriers to entering the United States.
These sessions are about connecting top researchers with advocates so communities can shape how HIV innovations are used on the ground. By creating this space, we make complex science accessible and ensure it meets the real needs of the people we serve.
The sessions connected top experts in the fields of HIV prevention, cure, and treatment with attendees able to go deep, ask questions, and share perspectives rom their own contexts. Spaces like the CBCs help bridge the gap between HIV science and communities working to advocate for innovations that fit their realities.
AVAC works with researchers, scholars, advocates and civil society members to develop and share resources that contextualize science at conferences like CROI. Speakers drawing from AVAC resources at CROI included Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, Director of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation and investigator on nearly every PrEP and HIV vaccine trial, who gave the opening session’s N’Galy-Mann Lecture, and Dr. Andrew Hill from the University of Liverpool who presented a Global Analysis of HIV Oral PrEP-to-Need Ratios in 2025. Dr. Raphael Landovitz from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Principal Investigator for the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) called AVAC infographics “an invaluable and terrific resource,” thanking AVAC for “historical and continued fierce advocacy and support.”
When clear visuals are embedded in conference presentations and included in coverage, they reach people beyond those in the room — including journalists, advocates, and community members who find and use them long after the event ends.