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…
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Evidence is growing that the people most affected by HIV are also the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Climate change is reshaping health systems and lives across the globe, but its impact on the HIV response has received far less attention than it deserves. Floods, droughts and…
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — The greatest barrier to ending AIDS among transgender people in Africa is not a lack of medicine, but laws, stigma and exclusion. Across sub-Saharan Africa, laws that criminalise homosexuality continue to collide with public health goals, leaving gay and bisexual men, and transgender people more broadly, dangerously underserved in the…
If an HIV prevention pill that provides a month of protection at a time performs well in two ongoing clinical trials, it could become the next big thing in HIV prevention after the lenacapavir injection. A new licensing agreement is paving the way for South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare to produce the pill should the study…
Funda ngesiZuluBy Palesa Matlala South Africa says African countries must invest more of their own money in HIV programmes as international donor funding continues to decline. A new once a month HIV prevention pill is showing promise, but it is still being tested and cannot yet be used by the public. South Africa has one…
Kampala — For more than two decades, scientific innovation and international financing have worked together to transform HIV from a deadly disease into a manageable chronic condition for millions of people. But today, the two pillars that have sustained the global HIV response appear to be moving in different directions. Researchers are reporting some of…
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — For decades, South Africa has been at the epicentre of the global HIV epidemic. Today, it is becoming the testing ground for what many scientists believe could be the most important advance in HIV prevention since daily pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP): a twice-yearly injection that has shown almost complete protection against…
Cyberattacks, data breaches, online harassment and other forms of technology-facilitated violence are becoming significant obstacles to HIV prevention and treatment, according to a UNAIDS specialist who says digital security has become inseparable from the fight against the epidemic itself. As health and social services have moved online, protecting people’s privacy while making sure digital transformation…
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — The global fight against HIV has never had more powerful scientific tools or faced greater political uncertainty. More than 7,000 scientists, activists, policymakers and community leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the opening of the International AIDS Conference. Global leaders warned that decades of progress against the epidemic could be…
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — The global HIV response stands at a defining moment, with health leaders warning that decades of progress are at risk as international funding declines and prevention programmes are scaled back across some of the world’s hardest-hit countries. Although new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have fallen to their lowest levels…
