World AIDS Day: Staying the Course to End HIV

Every year on December 1, people around the world commemorate World AIDS Day. Since 1988, it has been a time to reflect on those we have lost to the disease and to raise awareness about people impacted by HIV.

Tremendous advances in treatment and prevention of HIV over the last 40 years have significantly reduced the scope of the global epidemic. A recent UNAIDS report shows:

• new HIV infections worldwide totaled 1.3 million, a decline of 61% since the peak in 1996, when the arrival of protease inhibitors marked a reversal in HIV being a death sentence;
• approximately 77% of all people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral medications;
• there were 70% fewer AIDS-related deaths in 2024 since the peak in 2004; and
• between 2000 and 2024, nearly 4.4 million mother-to-child transmissions were averted thanks to programs to prevent transmission of the virus. 

However, analyses, including several by amfAR’s Public Policy Office, show that progress in the fight against AIDS is being threatened by recent cuts to funding and policy changes. Disrupted access to treatment and prevention and abandonment of targeted interventions for populations most in need, such as people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, sex workers, and transgender people will arguably roll back decades of hard-won gains.

How amfAR is helping

As HIV programs abroad are experiencing healthcare service interruptions and the U.S. government has severely decelerated HIV research funding, amfAR is committed more than ever to keeping its robust biomedical research, policy, and educational programs on track. Below are some highlights of what the Foundation has accomplished in 2025.

• amfAR awarded grants totaling over $3.1 million to both established and early-career researchers working on innovative strategies to cure HIV.
• In a groundbreaking advance, amfAR grantee Prof. Sharon Lewin of the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and a team of researchers have successfully employed mRNA technology to target latent HIV, the main barrier to a cure.
• A new study by amfAR’s Public Policy Office—the SCOPE report—shows how community-led organizations are critical partners in health service delivery and why and how community-led implementation of HIV services should be protected and strengthened. 
• amfAR’s TREAT Asia program, in partnership with Columbia University, welcomed a new class of CHIMERA Fellows, a mentorship initiative that helps researchers study the relationship between HIV and mental health and develop integrated services.