During the 2026 Carnival in Salvador de Bahia—one of the largest street festivals in Brazil, which gathered around 12 million people—UNAIDS, the Municipal Health Secretariat of Salvador, Bahia, and the non-governmental organization Motirô BA provided HIV information, testing and prevention services to its participants through the “Rolê da Prevenção” initiative.  

Rolê da Prevenção (which could be translated to English as Prevention Hangout) was carried out as a pilot in 2025 and following its success, it was incorporated by the city’s authorities as one of the 2026 official health activities of the Carnival. This represented a significant increase in the uptake of HIV testing and outreach. In total, 1.7 million male and female condoms were distributed and nearly 8,000 rapid HIV tests were performed—an increase of 68% compared to the same period previous year.  

According to Salvador’s Municipal Health Secretary, Rodrigo Alves, this initiative strengthens the city’s commitment to equity. “Rolê da Prevenção is an initiative that reaffirms our commitment to care, especially for the populations most vulnerable during Carnival. We are expanding access to testing, prevention supplies and quality information, bringing prevention closer to those who need it most. Our goal is to ensure that the celebration is also a space for care, protection and access to health services.” 

In 2025, UNAIDS conducted peer education trainings on combination HIV prevention, including capacity building on health equity and ways to respond to racism and LGBTphobia. This year, the same peer educators, financed by the local government through Motirô BA, offered rapid tests for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B and C along with qualified counselling and referrals for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP). 

The outreach teams were composed of members of key populations—such as people from the LGBTQIA+ community and black communities—thereby strengthening connection, identification and trust with the public and increasing community engagement. 

All HIV prevention supplies (condoms, lubricants), diagnostic supplies (HIV testing and self-testing), and treatment supplies (care and specialized services) were provided free of charge to everyone by the Unified Health System (SUS), Brazil’s public health system. 

“The continuation of the Rolê da Prevenção initiative in 2026 reinforces the priorities of the Global AIDS Strategy 2026–2031, especially the request for national responses to meet people’s needs and to be inclusive and multisectoral,” said Andrea Boccardi Vidarte. “Being where people are is essential to effectively responding to HIV.”  

In the context of Salvador’s Carnival—internationally recognized for its scale and diversity—health, culture and rights move forward together, strengthening the local response to HIV and reaffirming that HIV prevention and celebration can and should go side by side.  

UNAIDS urges the President not to sign the Bill and calls on Senegal to safeguard life-saving health services including HIV prevention, treatment and care.

GENEVA/DAKAR, 18 March 2026—On 12 March 2026, the Parliament of Senegal voted overwhelmingly to impose harsher penalties for “unnatural acts” including homosexuality and promoting or encouraging homosexuality. UNAIDS is deeply concerned about the implications for the country's public health achievements and urges the President not to sign the Bill.

The final adopted text includes a critical public health safeguard clause which UNAIDS urges Senegal to adhere to. The clause reads: “However, activities carried out by duly authorized health structures and organizations within the framework of public health policies shall not be considered as offenses under this article.”

UNAIDS acknowledges and values Senegal's longstanding partnership in the fight against HIV. The Ministry of Health and the country's National Council for the Fight Against AIDS have worked with partners to ensure that people living with HIV can access the care they need and that prevention reaches the populations most at risk. These gains have saved lives and represent an investment by the Senegalese people in their own health and future.

Senegal is confronted however, by significant challenges in its response to HIV and UNAIDS urges Senegal to maintain a strong focus on the public health evidence, legal framework and community partnerships required to achieve impact and a sustainable response with essential services accessible to the most vulnerable people. 

In Senegal, 79% of people living with HIV are on lifesaving treatment, however, between 2010 and 2024, new HIV infections in Senegal increased by 36% making Senegal one of only four countries in the West and Central African region experiencing a rise in new HIV infections. 

Evidence shows that criminalization causes people to turn away from health services. Criminal laws also increase stigma and discrimination against groups that are already marginalized. An effective HIV response based on solid public health evidence and protections for access to services for the most vulnerable is urgent for Senegal. 

UNAIDS calls on Government authorities to:

• Ensure the full and effective implementation of the public health exemption enshrined in the Bill, through clear ministerial guidance and legal certainty for health organizations and workers.
• Protect the confidentiality of medical information and the patient-provider relationship as non-negotiable foundations of a functioning health system.
• Ensure that community-based organizations providing HIV prevention, testing, treatment support, harm reduction and care can continue to operate without fear of prosecution.
• Maintain international funding channels and partnership frameworks that sustain HIV service delivery and ensure that donors and implementing partners have legal clarity regarding their continued engagement.
• Engage in open dialogue with health authorities, civil society, and UN partners to monitor the impact of the Bill on service access and take swift action where public health gains are at risk.

Ending AIDS requires reaching everyone, particularly people most at risk of HIV. UNAIDS remains committed to working together with Senegal to end AIDS as a public health threat in the country.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

At the 69th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), UNAIDS, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), together with partners, launched a new joint guidance note titled Decriminalization of drug use in the context of HIV. 

The new guidance note provides governments with practical, evidence-based recommendations on how to align drug policies with human rights standards, public health principles and the lived realities of people who use drugs. 

People who use drugs are disproportionately impacted by the HIV epidemic. Globally, people who inject drugs are 14 times more at risk of contracting HIV than the general adult (15-49) population and 8% of all new HIV infections were among people who inject drugs, according to 2025 data.  

More than four decades of the HIV response have shown that public health approaches are the most effective way to support people who use drugs and keep them connected to essential services, including HIV prevention, testing and treatment. Harm reduction services, including needle and syringe programmes and opioid agonist maintenance treatment, have been proven time and again to be effective in significantly reducing the risk of acquiring HIV, viral hepatitis and other blood-borne viruses. In addition, access to HIV testing and treatment can enable people living with HIV to reduce their viral load to undetectable, preventing sexual transmission of HIV.  

The decriminalization of people who use drugs, combined with investments in harm reduction services, can expand access to care and enable people to seek support without fear of arrest, harassment or discrimination. However, existing punitive drug laws continue to drive millions of people who use drugs away from lifesaving HIV services, fueling stigma and discrimination and undermining progress towards global HIV targets. 

“Punitive laws undermine the HIV response. Criminalization drives stigma, pushes people away from services, and weakens community-led responses. The evidence is clear,” said Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS Regional Director for Easter Europe and Central Asia and Asia and the Pacific. “What we need now is political leadership to translate evidence into legal, policy, and financing reforms.“ 

The guidance note comes at a critical time for the global HIV response. As no country currently fully meets global harm reduction coverage targets, the document highlights the urgent need for legal and policy reform particularly amid financial instability in the AIDS response. This funding crunch makes it increasingly important to invest limited resources where they are most effective. 

The new guidance note does not prescribe a single approach. Instead, it draws on decades of global experience and presents a range of evidence-informed approaches that countries can adapt to their national contexts including the development of clear criteria for distinguishing between drug possession for personal use and possession for supply for profit and the removal of criminal penalties for minor non-violent drug offences. It also helps policymakers work through key policy questions such as which alternative sanctions are appropriate; how not to recreate the harms of criminalization through the introduction of fines; how to ensure that referrals to treatment are voluntary and increase access to evidence‑based care; how to anticipate the potential impacts of legal and policy changes on HIV outcomes; and how to meaningfully engage communities of people who use drugs in answering these complex questions. 

Communities of people who use drugs helped develop the guidelines ensuring that it responds to realities on the ground. The document outlines steps countries can take to review and reform punitive laws, expand harm reduction services, reduce stigma, and embed community leadership in national HIV responses. 

“This guidance recognizes that people who use drugs must be at the centre of decisions affecting our health and rights so when lived expertise is included, HIV responses become more humane and effective,” said Anton Basenko of International Network of People who Use Drugs. The current Global AIDS Strategy for 2026-2031 calls for removing legal and policy barriers for key populations, scaling up harm reduction, and ensuring that community leadership is fully recognized and resourced. Ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 will not be possible without addressing criminalization and the inequalities that drive HIV vulnerability among people who use drugs. 

UNAIDS has convened a Regional Dialogue on the Status of the Epidemic and the AIDS Response in West and Central Africa as part of efforts to strengthen strategic engagement for a more effective, sustainable and integrated response to HIV across the region. Addressing the meeting in her opening remarks, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Angeli Achrekar highlighted the unique opportunity the year presents for global partners in the HIV response. 

“This Regional Dialogue comes at a time of substantial progress towards development, for example, life expectancy has increased by 20 years in Africa since 2000. We have a unique political opportunity this year to mobilize action guided by the new 2026 – 2031 Global AIDS Strategy to end AIDS. And we have exceptional capacity for impact that can be leveraged through the power of country, regional and global partnerships,” said Ms Achrekar.

The West and Central African region has made notable progress in the AIDS response in recent years. UNAIDS data show that in 2024, 81% of people living with HIV knew their status, 76% were accessing antiretroviral therapy, and 70% had suppressed viral loads, preventing onward transmission of the virus. 

Between 2010 and 2024 there was a 55% reduction in new HIV infections across the region and a 60% decline in AIDS-related deaths. However, these gains remain insufficient to meet global targets and end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

“The HIV epidemic is not over. It took the lives of 124,000 people in the region last year and in at least five countries in west, central and north Africa, new HIV infections continue to grow. So even as we celebrate progress, let’s remember that the job is not yet done," said Susan Kasedde, UNAIDS Regional Director, West and Central Africa.

Data from Eastern and Southern Africa show that faster progress is possible—93% of people living with HIV in the region know their HIV status, 84% are on treatment and 80% have suppressed viral loads. These results show that reaching the 2030 targets (95% of people living with HIV knowing their status, 90% receiving treatment, and 86% being virally suppressed) is achievable. The participants underscored the importance therefore of political will and engagement to accelerate progress, close gaps and end AIDS in the region.

"Behind the figures, there are still too many vulnerabilities, too many gaps in prevention, screening, and treatment services, and too many people still lack access to essential services. An even more massive remobilization of all institutional, community, and political partners and actors is necessary to meet these challenges,” said Saffiatou Thiam, Executive Direction, National AIDS Commission of Senegal.

In West and Central Africa progress is being hindered by significant inequalities which continue to persist. Disparities exist between countries and within countries, including differences across regions, districts, sexes, age groups and population groups. These inequalities limit the overall impact of interventions and threaten progress towards ending AIDS. 

“To get to 2030, countries must take decisive action to protect the populations most vulnerable to HIV infection, illness and death and all those working with them. Countries must ensure that the fundamental rights of these people to life, inclusion, safety and health are not violated,” noted Magatte Mbodj, from the Alliance Nationale Contre le SIDA in Senegal.

The Regional Dialogue comes at a pivotal moment for the global HIV response. The Global AIDS Strategy 2026–2031 has recently been developed, outlining three strategic priorities:

• Sustaining the response through country-led, resilient and future-ready systems
• Putting people at the centre, ensuring equity, dignity and access to services
• Empowering communities to lead and shape the HIV response

The meeting also takes place ahead of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, scheduled for June 2026, which will mobilize global commitment and establish a new political declaration to guide the AIDS response for the next five years.

"In Africa, we must seize this opportunity, mobilize political leadership of the region and support and defend a strong common African position that transforms the way we think about public policy and integration, helps develop resilient systems and advances realistic, financed, achievable sub-regional targets," said Adama Bocar Soko, Deputy Resident Representative (Operations) at UNDP.

GENEVA, 6 March — Globally, in 2024, around 4,000 adolescent girls and young women newly acquired HIV every week—3,300 of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa, where women and girls make up around two in every three new HIV infections.

The statistics do not end there.

• Nearly one in four adolescent girls experiences physical or sexual violence before the age of 20.
• According to UNFPA, fewer than half of women globally are able to make their own decisions about sex, contraception and health care.
• Punitive laws continue to fuel the HIV epidemic and undermine sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Such inequality is not a law of nature, it is a consequence.

This is what happens when women and girls are denied rights and denied justice.

When a girl cannot stay in school because of violence, when a woman cannot negotiate safer sex, when a survivor of violence cannot access healthcare and justice—HIV risk rises.

“HIV thrives where gender inequality persists,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “On this International Women’s Day let us honor all those organising for justice, defending rights, and supporting healthcare in the hardest of circumstances. Let us support community leadership and community outreach and the women spearheading such movements. Let us reform unjust laws. Protect services. Defend rights. Because ending AIDS and building a just world begins with rights, justice, and action for all women and girls.”

As the world prepares for the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) and the new Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, UNAIDS calls on governments, donors, and partners to reaffirm that justice is a right, not a privilege. Ending all forms of violence and ensuring legal empowerment and access to justice for women and girls in all their diversity, are inseparable from the fight to eliminate the inequalities within the HIV response.

Together, we can build a world where every woman and girl - including every woman and girl living with and affected by HIV - lives free from violence, fully in control of her rights, choices, and future.

Rights. Justice. Action. #ForAllWomenAndGirls.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.