The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is access. Access to services, rights, resources and political leadership. Without access, the world will not end AIDS.
As we celebrate 30 years of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, we recognise the extraordinary progress made: 32.1 million people are on life-saving treatment, and prevention now includes an effective injection needed only twice a year. Yet challenges remain. In 2025, 1.2 million people acquired HIV, 570,000 died of AIDS-related causes, 10.6 million people had unsuppressed viral loads and nearly 9 million people living with HIV still had no access to treatment. The gap is no longer what medicine can do. It is who is able, allowed and supported to reach it. Science only saves lives when it reaches people.
An HIV test exists. But can I get it where I live? Treatment exists. But can I afford it or collect it without stigma or discrimination? Prevention exists. But can I access it without fear of being criminalized? Can a young woman reach it without a long wait or a permission slip? Can a community organization provide services without access to funding or without access to civic spaces where they can organize and advocate freely with no fear of persecution?
The existence of services does not guarantee access. And access is uneven and, in some cases, under threat due to restrictive laws, unequal access to technologies, decrease in funding and backlash against rights, gender equality and the inclusion of marginalized communities. The world has the knowledge and the science to end AIDS but could lose progress unless it protects access for all today.
Services must be within reach: near home, affordable, private and free of discrimination. Rights must be protected, because laws that criminalise people drive them away from clinics. Resources must be sustained: external HIV financing fell by 18% in 2025, the largest drop in almost two decades, and the community-led organizations that reach the people left furthest behind were among the first to lose funding. Political leadership must turn the promises of the 2026 Political Declaration into budgets, laws and services people can actually use.
The world has the tools, the targets and the commitments. Ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 remains within reach, but only if access becomes real for everyone. This World AIDS Day, join us in calling for it.
Where the world stands
Decades of global solidarity have cut new HIV infections by 42% and AIDS-related deaths by 57% since 2010. But the world is off track. In 2025 there were 1 million more new infections and 400,000 more AIDS-related deaths than if the world were on course for its 2030 targets. The gaps are sharpest for children: just over half of children living with HIV (55%) were on treatment.
Access is being lost
In 2025, the drop in external financing was felt first and hardest in prevention and community-led services.
- In Cameroon, Nigeria and Zambia, the number of people receiving PrEP fell by more than half between 2024 and 2025.
- A 2026 survey of 79 community-led organizations in 47 countries found a 50% drop in PrEP delivery. Services for gay men and other men who have sex with men fell by 85%, and services for sex workers by 82%.
- In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women account for about 3,000 new HIV acquisitions every week.
Barriers that no medicine can remove
Stigma, discrimination and punitive laws keep people from services. Across 34 countries, 39% of adults hold discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV. Among people living with HIV who sought non-HIV health care, 25% reported stigma or discrimination and 12% were denied care entirely.
In 2026, sex work is criminalised in 168 countries and possession of small amounts of drugs in 152. Same-sex sexual acts are criminalised in 66 countries. Two more countries introduced such laws in 2025, and one increased penalties in 2026. Only 7 of 193 countries do not criminalise at least one of these groups or behaviours. People who inject drugs are 34 times more likely to acquire HIV than the general adult population, and gay men and other men who have sex with men are 18 times more likely.
New technologies must reach everyone
Science has delivered breakthroughs. Long-acting prevention such as lenacapavir can protect a person from HIV with just two injections a year. It is not a vaccine, but it is the closest the world has come to one. By the end of June 2026, more than 50,000 people in nine sub-Saharan African countries had received it, and its price for lower-income countries will fall to US$ 40 per person per year from 2027.
Although the breakthrough is real,the access is not yet matching the science. Prices for middle- and upper-income countries remain unclear. New prevention is arriving just as existing prevention is being dismantled: HIV testing fell by 22% in the high-burden countries of one major bilateral programme, and in some places funding for condoms has been cut by more than 90%.
To reach the people who need it, lenacapavir must be funded, integrated into national systems and delivered alongside the full range of prevention options that women and key populations say they need. Countries need costed plans and detailed data so that every dose reaches the communities that need it, and so that they can plan rather than improvise. The 2026 Political Declaration commits Member States to affordable, timely access to HIV medicines, diagnostics and related health technologies. Local production in Africa and regional manufacturing initiatives, such as Brazil’s G20 initiative, are part of making sure the next breakthrough does not arrive locked behind a patent.
As UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima has said: “The science has done its part. The system must now do ours.”
Communities are keeping access alive
Community-led organizations reach people that public systems often miss. In many countries, more than 60% of sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs and transgender people who are reached with prevention services rely on nongovernmental and community-led providers. Yet these organizations were among the first to lose funding, and many depend almost entirely on international financing.
Countries are stepping up too. Domestic funding for HIV rose again in 2025, and more than 55 countries have committed to increase their own contributions. Uganda expanded PrEP through domestic resources, and Brazil increased the number of people using PrEP by 41%.
The commitments are made. Now make them real.
In June 2026, United Nations Member States adopted a new Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. It commits the world to:
- 40 million people on treatment, of which 38 million are virally suppressed and 20 million people using antiretroviral-based prevention by 2030;
- 90% of people in need using effective prevention options;
- Ending stigma, discrimination and punitive laws, and ensuring equitable pricing for diagnostics and treatment in every country;
- Delivering 30% of testing and treatment support, 80% of prevention for key populations and 60% of programmes on societal enablers through community-led organizations;
- US$ 21.9 billion a year by 2030, compared with US$ 17.6 billion available in 2025.
- Integrating HIV into broader health services in ways that expand access and choice—without losing quality, confidentiality, human rights or community-led services.
If these commitments are met, 3.2 million new HIV infections and 1.3 million AIDS-related deaths could be averted by 2030.
What we are asking for
This World AIDS Day, we are calling on governments and partners to:
- Make HIV prevention, testing and treatment available where people live, at no or low cost.
- Remove legal and policy barriers, and end stigma and discrimination in health care.
- Fund community-led services so that they never stop.
- Ensure that new HIV technologies reach everyone who needs them, at prices countries can afford.
Join us
Access is the difference between a tool that exists and a life that changes. Ending AIDS by 2030 is still possible, but only if we make access real for everyone.
On this World AIDS Day, wear the red ribbon, learn where access is missing in your community, and add your voice. Share the campaign with #WorldAIDSDay.