Publications

A new report, HIV Prevention: From Crisis to Opportunity shows that HIV infections continue to decline in countries that are part of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition (GPC) faster than in the rest of the world. Eleven GPC focus countries have reduced their annual number of new HIV infections by at least 66% since 2010. By comparison, the average reduction in new HIV infections since 2010 globally is 38%. The GPC is a coalition of 38 countries working together to accelerate declines in new HIV infections to achieve the target of having 95% of the people who are at risk of HIV accessing effective combination prevention options.

The Global Fund strategy for 2023-2028 has three mutually reinforcing contributory objectives. One critical objective is Maximizing the Engagement and Leadership of Most Affected Communities to Leave No One Behind, which specifically applies to GC7.

Ethics is a discipline or area of study concerned with issues such as benefits, harms, fairness, and rights. As an area of study and practice, ethics covers moral values and questions about what actions should be taken and which policies should be implemented. Ethical answers to these questions depend on what (beneficial or harmful) outcomes are likely to occur, but also the extent to which these outcomes will be distributed fairly through relevant populations, and the rights and interests of the people affected by actions and policies. This is the third brief in a set discussing phylogenetics and HIV in public health will discuss ethics and human rights considerations. Throughout, we keep in mind Article 8 of the Helsinki Declaration: While the primary purpose of medical research is to generate new knowledge, this goal can never take precedence over the rights and interests of individual research subjects.

Phylogenetic approaches have been used to study HIV biology and epidemiology since the early 1980s. In the last 15 years, advances in sequencing have led to an increase in the information obtained and a sharp drop in costs, making it feasible to use phylogenetics in larger studies and public health HIV surveillance programmes. This is the second brief in a series of three on HIV phylogenetics. The first brief, The Application of Phylogenetics to HIV—Insights into Biology and Epidemiology of HIV, explains the methods and approaches used to generate genetic and phylogenetic data and analyses. This brief summarises the ways in which phylogenetic (and other sequence-based) analyses are currently being used and reflects on how they could be used in the future in the field of HIV research and public health. The third brief discusses the ethical challenges of using HIV phylogenetics in research and public health surveillance.

Phylogenetics is the study of the evolution of organisms based on their genetic similarity. Phylogenetic techniques, laboratory methods to read genetic code present in all living organisms, can be used to compare different species or to compare different members of the same species. They can also be used to compare viruses like HIV. Phylogenetic techniques are used to detect the subtle changes that occur in the genetic code of each organism from one generation to the next. These changes are particularly pronounced in HIV making it a good candidate for phylogenetic studies. This brief introduction to HIV phylogenetics is the first of three briefs on the phylogenetics of HIV. This brief introduces phylogenetics, explains how the genetic code can be read, and shows how the sequences can reveal insights into HIV biology and epidemiology.

Achieving the 2025 and 2030 goals will require strong political leadership and the active engagement of people living with HIV and key and vulnerable populations across multiple sectors. Resources will need to be mobilized from both domestic and international sources. Sustainability will require different measures and approaches in diverse settings, highlighting the importance of tailoring sustainability planning and implementation for specific contexts, with existing efforts being leveraged. Flexibility and resilience will be essential in the face of changes in national HIV epidemics as well as in economic, political and social contexts. This Primer document outlines a new approach to planning and implementing sustainable national HIV responses, that aims to galvanize efforts and to drive sustainable HIV Response transformations to reach and maintain epidemic control beyond 2030, by upholding the right to health for all. Through country driven and owned processes based on the most recent data, countries will develop specific HIV Response Sustainability Roadmaps. These Roadmaps will identify high-level outcomes across key domains of sustainability, including political leadership, quality access to services, system capacities, enabling policies, and domestic and international financing.

ANNOUNCING THE ASIA PACIFIC WORLD AIDS DAY REPORT LAUNCH AND SHARE FAIR Please invite communities of people living with HIV, key populations and other civil society organizations in your country to join our virtual World AIDS Day share fair. They will be briefed on the 2023 World AIDS Day report and learn from other community leaders about strategies for stronger social media and news media engagement to advance their advocacy agendas. DATE: Thursday 30th November, 2023 TIME: 1PM Bangkok time HOST: Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, UNAIDS Asia Pacific Goodwill Ambassador FEATURING: 7 Alliance, APCOM, GWL-INA, Lighthouse Social Enterprise, TLF Share INTERPRETATION: Burmese, Indonesian, Khmer, Thai and Vietnamese REGISTER: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__ldBxIwsTfqq6KlaY7s1ww#/registration

From the start of the HIV pandemic, one of the distinguishing features of the HIV response has been the central role played by communities. The invaluable innovation, passion and insight of communities have proven pivotal in getting the world to the point where there is a clear path to end AIDS as a public health threat. When the HIV pandemic was first recognized in the early 1980s, opportunities to respond effectively were hampered by the dominance in too many places of top-down approaches that combined insufficient engagement with the communities most heavily affected with disrespect and even hostility towards them. 

This page presents an update to key data in our flagship report, The Global State of Harm Reduction. The full report is published every two years, with updates to key data in between editions of the report. This update summarises some of the key developments in harm reduction and drug policy since the launch of the 8th edition in November 2022.

HIV sero-surveillance which was initiated in 1985 has evolved over the years as one of the most fundamental strategic information functions, facilitating evidence-based decision-making under the National AIDS and STD Control Programme (NACP) of the Government of India. Inmates at the central jails were included as one of the HIV surveillance population groups under NACP in India during the 2019 round of surveillance.