29/07/2026 04:47 - Salud
For the first time in a Latin American country, the XXVI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) is being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, starting on July 27, 2026. The event brings together UN leaders, health ministers, and activists with a central message: we have the science to win this battle, but we need the political will.
The new UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) report, titled 'United to End AIDS', reveals extraordinary data. Since the peak of the epidemic, new infections fell by 65% and AIDS-related deaths decreased by 73%. Today, more than 32 million people receive antiretroviral treatment, saving over 28.5 million lives.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, AIDS-related deaths decreased by 46% between 2010 and 2025, and access to PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, a highly effective medication taken to prevent HIV) jumped from 35,000 people in 2020 to more than 326,000 in 2025. Ending AIDS by 2030 remains within reach, stated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, warned that progress is fragile. In 2025, 1.2 million people contracted HIV and 570,000 died from related illnesses. Today, 8.9 million people living with the virus lack access to treatment, including 45% of children with HIV.
The cut in international funding is the main threat. According to media reports from Infobae and La Gaceta, funds for developing countries fell by 6% last year, down to 17.6 billion dollars. The United States, which funds 74% of governmental aid, has reduced allocations, while European contributions have accumulated a 58% drop since 2011, as detailed by Yahoo Vida y Estilo.
Science offers revolutionary tools. Lenacapavir, a long-acting injectable antiretroviral administered only twice a year, promises to change the landscape. However, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced that while its mass production would cost 40 dollars per person per year, it is marketed in the United States for 28,000 dollars. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical company Merck announced plans to license the manufacturing of generic versions of its monthly preventative pill, Alimatravir, in Africa and India.
Innovation only changes lives when people can access it, highlighted Jarbas Barbosa, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Stigmatization also hinders progress. Currently, 66 countries criminalize same-sex relations, 168 criminalize sex work, and 14 penalize trans people. Belizean activist Erika Castellanos, 50, who has been living with HIV since 1995, moved the audience by sharing her experience: I am alive today thanks to science, activism, and a community that organized. Fund this response as if lives depend on it, because they do.
The global community, gathered in Brazil, sends a message of hope and urgency: the goal to eradicate AIDS by 2030 is achievable if resources and empathy accompany science. (Sources: El Destape, EFE).
Alfredo S. Quiroga
