Africa must take charge of HIV cure research or risk repeating past delays in accessing lifesaving medical innovations, the head of the Africa HIV Cure Consortium, Albert Machinda, has warned.
Machinda, who is the consortium’s Principal Investigator and head of Secretariat, made the remarks during the 2026 HIV Research Community Symposium in Kampala, where he urged African governments, researchers and communities to lead the next phase of HIV science.
He said Africa’s historical dependence on medical breakthroughs developed outside the continent had delayed access to HIV treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and COVID-19 vaccines, costing many lives.
“If we look at the history of HIV and where we’ve come from, we do not want to be left behind,” Machinda said, arguing that Africa has largely remained a consumer rather than a producer of medical innovations.
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He said antiretroviral therapy became available in the United States years before reaching many African countries, leaving many people on the continent waiting for treatment.
Machinda added that oral PrEP, introduced in the United States around 2012, also took years to achieve widespread uptake in Africa despite the continent carrying the world’s highest HIV burden.
He said similar challenges were experienced during COVID-19 vaccine access because manufacturing was concentrated outside Africa.
“We want to change that narrative. The next frontier is HIV cure, and we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past,” he said.
According to Machinda, Africa accounts for about 65 per cent of people living with HIV globally but contributes less than one per cent of global HIV cure research.
He said the imbalance was concerning because HIV transmission patterns and virus subtypes in Africa differ from those in Europe and North America.
“Most HIV cure research is conducted in the Global North, where the epidemic is concentrated among key populations such as men who have sex with men and transgender people,” he said.
“In Africa, HIV is predominantly transmitted through heterosexual sex, and we also have the greatest diversity of HIV subtypes. That means research conducted elsewhere cannot simply be transferred to African settings.”
To address the gap, Machinda said African scientists, civil society organisations and international partners established the Africa HIV Cure Consortium two years ago to position the continent at the centre of HIV cure research.
The founding African members include Uganda’s Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) through the Global Gene Therapy Initiative, the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, the African Alliance, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal through the Southern African Network of TB/HIV Excellence.
International partners include the International AIDS Society, AVAC and Georgetown University’s HIV Cure Acceleration Partnership.
Machinda said the consortium is working to build community awareness, strengthen scientific capacity, harmonise regulatory systems, influence government policy and mobilise domestic financing for HIV cure research.
He said communities must be involved in shaping discussions on what a future HIV cure should look like and how it should be accessed.
“We want our communities to understand what HIV cure is, why it is important and what they need that cure to look like,” he said.
The consortium is also training young African scientists through the annual Research for Cure Academy, which aims to develop a new generation of HIV cure researchers on the continent.
Machinda said harmonising regulatory processes across African countries would also help accelerate multi-country clinical trials.
“At the moment, every country has different approval processes. We need a system where research can move across borders without unnecessary delays,” he said.
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He criticised the absence of HIV cure strategies in many African national HIV plans, saying this limits government commitment and funding.
“If HIV cure is not in a country’s national strategic plan, then it effectively does not exist in government planning. It is not funded and cannot realistically be prioritised,” he said.
Machinda called on African governments to integrate HIV cure research into national and regional health strategies and increase domestic funding for scientific research.
“We cannot depend on foreign funding for our own health priorities. African funding for African health and African research is critical if this work is to be sustainable,” he said.
He said locally funded research would allow African countries to define health priorities based on their own needs and ensure future HIV cure innovations consider African populations.
