UNAIDS and the World Health Organization have published this updated guidance on ethical considerations in HIV prevention trials. The new guidance is the result of a year-long process that saw more than 80 experts and members of the public give inputs and is published 21 years after the first edition appeared. Read the story announcing this guidance This document is also available in Portuguese.

Joint actions by the Global Fund and UNAIDS are guided by a strong alignment of strategies, goals and targets. UNAIDS has worked with all stakeholders to set a common agenda and targets within the Global AIDS Strategy 2021–2026, and the United Nations General Assembly confirmed this strategy and its ambitious targets within its 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030.

This publication provides managers with guidance on how to create basic HIV prevention cascades as a starting point to enhance their ability to monitor and improve their programming and to facilitate comparisons of programme effectiveness across sites.

Mandatory HIV testing and bans on entry, stay and residence based on HIV status not only do not protect public health but undermine HIV prevention and treatment efforts. For millions of people living with HIV around the world, these are repeated violations of their right to privacy, equality and non-discrimination and a constant reminder of HIV-related stigma. In 2016, United Nations Member States agreed to eliminate HIV-related travel restrictions. In 2019, around 48 countries and territories still maintain some form of HIV-related travel restriction.

To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health and HIV expenditure, UNAIDS
carried out a modelling study on fiscal space for health and HIV. From a sample of
28 countries, three countries—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jamaica, and
Lesotho—were selected to capture health and HIV expenditure impacts across countries
with especially marked differences in burdens of disease (including HIV prevalence), HIV
donor dependency, level of economic development, and geographic location. While the
three-country sample is too small to permit findings to be generalized to other countries,
these analyses are useful for informing UNAIDS’ work to identify some policy positions to
minimize the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the HIV response.

This brief was developed following a consultation with members of the UNAIDS Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) and other key stakeholders following the results from four community trials in Africa that showed decreased HIV incidence (by approximately 20–30%) and decreased HIV-related mortality (by approximately 20%) within three years of implementing a community-wide universal test and connect programme compared with current standard care.

Universal test and connect is an intensive community-wide strategy to accelerate HIV epidemic transition to rapidly reduce new HIV infections and deaths from AIDS-related illnesses across a specific community. This brief captures the highlights of the core findings of the STAC meeting and is focused on explaining universal test and connect in clear terms, with an emphasis on what it is and isn’t and on what to consider if a country is interested in implementing the approach at the subnational level. It also highlights the implications of the current and possible future COVID-19 contexts on opportunities for universal test and connect.