The primary purpose of antiretroviral therapy is to keep people living with HIV in good health. In the large majority of people living with HIV, antiretroviral medication can be chosen that reduce the amount of HIV in the blood to levels that are undetectable by standard laboratory tests. 

UNAIDS has collected and published information on the state of the world’s HIV epidemic for the past 20 years. This information has shaped and guided the development of the response to HIV in regions, countries and cities worldwide. This edition of UNAIDS data contains the highlights of the very latest data on the world’s response to HIV, consolidating a small part of the huge volume of data collected, analysed and refined by UNAIDS over the years.

The pages that follow tell the powerful and moving stories of people who are living with or affected by HIV and who have experienced positive improvements in their lives because of the synergies between the AIDS response and the related SDGs. Now more than ever I believe that we have the means, the science and the unity of commitment and spirit to deliver on the SDGs and to transform our world by 2030.

The old saying “What gets measured gets done” may be a cliché, but is still very true for the response to HIV. Over the years, a detailed understanding of the HIV epidemic has emerged through the collection, analysis and dissemination of data, helping programmes to reach the right people in the right place and at the right time. Having high-quality data on the AIDS response has enabled ambitious, measurable and time-bound targets to be set for tracking progress and ensuring accountability.

Today, we are at the cusp of eliminating new HIV infections among children—a movement led by women. More women are accessing antiretroviral therapy than men, transferring the benefits of their good health to their families and economies. When young women are empowered and have their rights fulfilled, HIV prevalence falls, there are fewer unintended pregnancies, fewer maternal deaths and fewer dropouts from school and more women join the workforce. When young women have access to education, health outcomes dramatically improve.

The indicators and questions in this document are designed for use by national AIDS programmes and partners to assess the state of a country’s HIV and AIDS response, and to measure progress towards achieving national HIV targets. Countries are encouraged to integrate these indicators and questions into their ongoing monitoring efforts and to report comprehensive national data through the Global AIDS Monitoring (GAM) process. In this way they will contribute to improving understanding of the global response to the HIV epidemic, including progress that has been made towards achieving the commitments and global targets set out in the new United Nations Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030, adopted in June 2021, and the linked Sustainable Development Goals.

A triangulation of data to verify the UNAIDS global estimate of people accessing antiretroviral therapy at the end of 2015