HIV/AIDS

Nearly 40 years since the first cases of HIV were reported, the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to cause infection, sickness, and death around the world. Despite recent progress towards controlling the epidemic in some countries, new infections are increasing at alarming rates in some key geographies and among key populations. Around two-thirds of those living with HIV worldwide are on anti-retroviral treatment (ART), which not only can save their lives, but can help achieve the viral suppression that will keep people living with HIV from passing on the virus. While a vaccine and a cure remain elusive, new diagnostic, prevention, and treatment tools have changed the landscape and made ending HIV as a public health threat a possibility. However, doing so will require high degrees of political will, financing, enabling policy, and focused programming. With more than 38 million people globally living with HIV, HIV remains a public health crisis that requires U.S. government leadership, including in its own domestic epidemic.

The CSIS Global Health Policy Center is working with leaders from the HIV/AIDS community to provide in-depth analysis of U.S., international, and multilateral approaches to addressing HIV and to produce actionable policy recommendations on U.S. HIV leadership.

Featured Project

For more than two decades, the United States has been a global leader in supporting countries, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, in introducing and scaling up access to new technologies designed to prevent, diagnose, and treat infections with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). From its launch in 2003 to the third quarter of 2024, PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, was credited with enrolling more than 20 million people on antiretroviral drugs, saving 26 million lives, and preventing nearly 8 million children from being born with HIV. With the recent executive orders and dismantling of much of U.S. foreign assistance for global health, the program's historic achievements are at risk. As plans for a new approach to global health advance, protecting PEPFAR’s successes, reinforcing bipartisan commitment to ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat, and ensuring lessons learned are applied to future initiatives will be essential.