Avac Event

Accelerating the Health Equity Impact of Interventions for Infectious Diseases in Africa

Innovations in infectious disease prevention and control can exacerbate, rather than reduce, health inequities. More advantaged populations and higher-income countries are often better positioned to benefit from new technologies, while infectious disease risk and limited access to health services remain concentrated among disadvantaged groups.

These patterns, often described as “inverse laws”, are not inevitable. Evidence from multiple settings demonstrates that their underlying determinants are modifiable.

This symposium marks the launch of the Infectious Disease Equity (InDiE) Consortium, a collaborative initiative involving researchers from Zimbabwe, Zambia, The Gambia, South Africa and Kenya. The consortium aims to develop an equity-focused framework to support the implementation of new technologies without widening existing disparities in health access.

Speakers

  • Professor Richard Cookson, University of York, UK – The Inverse Care Law and Equity Tradeoffs
  • Ms Grace Kumwenda, AVAC (Africa Region) – Ending inequitable access to prevention and treatment interventions: A community perspective
  • Professor Cesar Victora, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil – The Inverse Equity Hypothesis: Lessons from the Field
  • Dr Primrose Matambanadzo, CeSHHAR, Zimbabwe – The Infectious Disease Equity Consortium

Chairs

Professor Clare Bambra and Dr Ngozi Erondu, Co-chairs of the InDiE Consortium International Advisory Group 

Avac Event

Uganda Key Populations Consortium Conversation on LEN

A conversation on lenacapavir, community access, and what happens next.

Moderator

  • Richard Lusimbo, Ugandan LGBT activist, documentary filmmaker, and public speaker

Speakers

  • Brian Aliganyira, Executive Director, Ark Wellness Hub
  • MacLean Kyomya, Founder and ED, AWAC
  • Kenneth Mwehonge, Executive Director, HEPS Uganda
  • Bridget N Jjuuko, Regional Manager, AVAC

Avac Event

Planting Seeds in These Times: Stories of Resistance and Possibility for the HIV Movement

This interactive webinar invited HIV prevention advocates and movement workers to explore how storytelling can be a tool for resistance and possibility, especially now. Drawing on the Storytelling Project Model, we examined the stories that shape our work, surfaced examples of resistance from within and beyond the HIV movement, and practiced generating the emerging stories we need for the future we’re building.

Speaker
Oni Blackstock, MD, MHS
Founder and Executive Director, Health Justice

Recording / Slides / Transcript

Avac Event

Launching STI Advocacy Hubs: National Agendas from Kenya, South Africa & Zimbabwe

Join AVAC and partners for the launch of STI Advocacy Hubs and the introduction of new country-led advocacy agendas from Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. This webinar will highlight the key challenges shaping STI prevention, diagnostics, and care in each country, and outline priority actions to strengthen national responses. Speakers from partner organizations will share how these agendas aim to drive policy change and improve access to STI prevention tools.

Moderator: Alison Footman

Speakers:

  • Teodora Wi, former Team Lead for Sexually Transmitted Infections at the WHO
  • Lori Newman, Gates Foundation
  • Felix Mogaka and Mercy Nyakowa (Kenya)
  • Alex de Voux and Mandisa Mdingi (South Africa)
  • Chido Diva Chikwari, Chido Moira Majaha, and Constancia Mavodza (Zimbabwe)

Avac Event

HIV Prevention 2030: A Global Access Framework for Country-Led Responses dissemination webinar

This webinar outlined the transition to a country-led prevention framework, focusing on the new 2030 global targets and the integration of long-acting prevention tools. Participants learned how community-led organizations will take the lead in service delivery to ensure equitable access and sustainable health systems through the end of the decade.

Avac Event

INTEREST 2026

The International Conference on HIV Treatment, Pathogenesis, and Prevention Research (INTEREST), will take place 12-15 May in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, covering new advances in HIV prevention, treatment, cure, and vaccine research and development (R&D); implementation science; and how science is being translated into impact through an African-led HIV agenda.

AVAC has compiled resources and highlights to support participation and engagement.

AVAC Infographics

For those presenting at INTEREST (as well as anyone interested in tracking the field), AVAC’s latest infographics on the HIV R&D and delivery pipelines are available in an easy-to-use slide format – including lenacapavir for HIV PrEP (LEN) volume commitments, the current landscape of prevention options in development, and the impact of US funding cuts with new data from PEPFAR. We hope these are useful for presentations and discussions at the conference and beyond.

Download the Slide Deck

Join AVAC, Access Bridge and Partners at These Sessions of Interest

If you are in Dar es Salaam, be sure to join sessions in which AVAC, Access Bridge, and our partners are involved.

Posters (Wednesday, 13 May and Thursday, 14 May)

  • HIV Prevention Research and Development at a Tipping Point: Insights from the 2025 People’s Research Agenda Update by AVAC’s Grace Kumwenda

    Identifying key priorities for the HIV prevention research agenda moving forward and informing global advocacy and engagement in R&D in response to the evolving HIV prevention landscape, including recent scientific advances and growing threats posed by funding and political disruptions.
  • Community Led Research on HIV Treatment, Pathogenesis and Prevention among People who use Drugs in Tanzania by Kwame Juma of Tanzania Network of People Who Use Drugs (TaNPUD) and COMPASS

    Description forthcoming!

Mini-Oral Abstract (Friday, 15 May)

  • Global Forecast of Long-Acting PrEP Need for Key Populations (2025-2030), by Catherine Verde Hashim presented Wawira Nyagah; 12:00-12:24

    Understand the need for long-acting PrEP amongst key populations globally and explore which countries have the highest need.

What We’re Watching

The INTEREST 2026 program includes a full list of sessions, including the following, which AVAC is tracking closely (note: all times are local Tanzanian time):

Tuesday, 12 May

Wednesday, 13 May

If you are attending INTEREST 2026 and would like to connect, reach out to the AVAC and Access Bridge teams at [email protected] and [email protected]. And stay up to date on the latest news from AVAC via our newsletters or on LinkedIn.

Avac Event

Forward in SYNChronicity through Research and Care

At the SYNChronicity conference, this morning plenary session will bring together nationally recognized leaders who exemplify true synchronicity across scientific discovery, clinical practice, policy, and real-world implementation. This session will highlight how aligning drug user health, long COVID and vaccine research, care delivery, advocacy, and public health strategy accelerates meaningful impact, advances innovation, and improves outcomes — particularly for communities most affected by chronic diseases.

Speakers will provide critical updates on biomedical HIV prevention, vaccine preparedness, and current research studies shaping the prevention landscape; explore the intersections with drug user health, highlighting models that bridge treatment, harm reduction, and community-based support; discuss lessons from long COVID research and chronic disease management to draw connections to advocacy, research equity, and patient-led movements; and share insights on synchronizing policy and research with public health priorities and marginalized community needs.

Speakers: Gregorio Millett, MPH; Mitchell Warren; JD Davids; and Judith Feinberg, MD

Avac Event

The Power of Advocacy: Keeping state, national and global progress connected

Advocacy requires us to understand that local actions connect to broader systemic change. This plenary session at AIDSWatch will discuss the interconnected nature of advocacy at the state, national, and global levels and highlight how policies, movements, and decisions influence one another. Participants will examine the tactics of our current administration, learn how grassroots work impacts national and global efforts, and identify how we can learn from each other and collaborate as we face unprecedented threats at every level.

Speakers: Kamaria Laffrey, SERO Project; John Meade, AVAC; Joseph Stango, AIDS United; Kelly Flannery, PWN

Moderator: Liz Kaplan

Avac Event

What Happens When the Next Pandemic Hits?

In today’s world of misinformation and geopolitical upheaval, are we more prepared or less prepared for the next pandemic than we were when COVID-19 hit?

Join the Center for Global Health Policy & Politics for a conversation with Bloomberg’s Global Health Editor, Jason Gale, former White House Global Health Security Coordinator Stephanie Psaki, and Senior Scholar and former USAID COVID-19 Vaccines Access Director Nina Schwalbe on the future of pandemics and global health.

Drawing on Gale’s award-winning reporting, the discussion will explore COVID’s enduring legacy and look ahead to what today’s environment of inequality, strained health systems, mental health challenges, and the rise of misinformation and anti-science narratives means for the future. Moderation by Professor Matthew Kavanagh and discussant remarks by Professor Rebecca Katz.

Avac Event

Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2026)

The annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) took place February 22–25, 2026, in Denver, Colorado.

Check out AVAC’s Highlights from the Meeting

AVAC Infographics

AVAC’s visuals for presentations and discussions were seen across the conference. Access them here in an easy-to-use slide format.

Download the Slide Deck

Community Breakfast Clubs

Each day during CROI, AVAC, EATG, Fiocruz, TAG, and other partners hosted virtual webinars called Community Breakfast Clubs featuring researchers and advocates breaking down important prevention, treatment and cure science presented at CROI and the implications for the field.

Click here for the recordings