Solidarity makes science accessible for all – this is the roadmap for ending the AIDS epidemic

Attending the 26th International AIDS Conference in Rio, you could be forgiven for thinking it was two entirely different events. Under the grand theme ‘Rethink, Rebuild, Rise’, one conference celebrated scientific breakthroughs and progress. The other was furious, frightened and determined to defy the dismantling of decades of work. Jeff Graham, acting US Global AIDS Coordinator, took to the stage to outline the US administration’s new brazenly titled "America First Global Health Strategy." He is the man responsible for PEPFAR – the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has saved more than 26 million lives since 2003, which the Trump administration gutted in early 2025, despite promises to protect life-saving care. People living and affected by HIV from multiple countries had a different agenda and stormed the presentation carrying placards: “Stop the Blackmail. Release PEPFAR Funds. Follow the Science” to the chants of “You lie, we die.” I was one of them. The US is not alone in retreating from commitments to end AIDS. European governments including France, the UK and Sweden have also reduced their contributions. Protestors swept the conference, confronting France over its 58 per cent reduction to the Global Fund for 2026 to 2028, while pharmaceutical company Gilead faced protests over the price of life-saving medicines, including the twice-yearly HIV prevention jab lenacapavir. Latin American activists warned of a new form of colonialism. Kenyan activists put it starkly: “If donors don’t fund HIV they can start digging graves.” The illusion of progress crumbled further upon realising that in the very country hosting us, Brazil, were involved in opaque pricing deals for medication, where transparency would help all. Even the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) lost about 25 per cent of its total financial aid last year. Its chief, Winnie Byanyima, warned: “We don’t have time to lose. This is a moment of radical change.” Throughout AIDS2026, I presented "HIV The Morning After", interviewing hundreds of HIV and AIDS advocates to cope with this loss and generate insight. Dr Tristan Barber, chair of the British HIV Association, described the fragility created by decades of dependence on US funding. “Being dependent on one country as a donor, historically the US, has led to a certain amount of fragility. The last 18 months have really demonstrated that,” he said. Simon Collins, founder of HIV i-Base, struck at this barbarity, “The big issue is that they withdrew funding in the most destructive and vindictive and cruelest ways, in that they gave organisations and countries absolutely no notice of what was going to happen.” However, funding is only one part of the problem. Pharmaceutical monopolies remain at the crux of access. Fatimah Hassan, director of Health Justice Initiative in South Africa told me “Pharmaceuticals’ bottom line is profit and their bottom line is not equity. It’s a scandal and a crime that, given all the public health crises we’re facing, we still have intellectual property rules that allow a lifesaving medicine to be granted a patent.” Yet the extraordinary irony is that scientific breakthroughs have never been stronger. We have once-daily treatment and prevention that can be administered only a few times a year, including lenacapavir. Dr Antonio Flores, of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said: “I think we in a way are victims of our own success. HIV has become a manageable chronic condition, but we must continue to protect people’s rights – minority rights, ethnic minority rights, sexual minority rights and women’s rights.” How can a gay male sex worker safely attend a clinic in a country where homosexuality is criminalised? How can women access prevention and treatment while shame and stigma remain so powerful? The answer I heard on repeat was that technological breakthroughs must go hand in hand with access, as outlined by Indonesian doctor and transgender rights activist Alegra Wolter: “Dealing with multi-layered vulnerabilities and inequities requires community innovations at the centre.” Christabel Millar, of Thorne Harbour Health, argued for the professionalisation of peer support and putting resources directly into the hands of those delivering it, so “no more big bosses in fancy cars and the people delivering the peer support on the back of a motorbike.” Susan Cole-Haley of the Phoenix Health Movement called for “political commitment to end the inequalities that exist both between and within countries, so that everyone – regardless of where they live, who they love or the colour of their skin – can benefit from the remarkable innovations being developed.” ‘Access for all’ was the thread running right through to the closing speeches. Jean Vinicius of the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) delivered an emotional address. "I am someone who has had to deal with constant humiliation and a lot of discrimination. I built my career, my journey, by integrating into the state network of adolescents and young people living with HIV here in Rio de Janeiro, welcoming, educating and politicising young people in vulnerable situations,” he said. Jean confronted the structural injustices that determine who gets to benefit from the progress celebrated inside the conference walls and ended with: “The cure already exists. It’s called solidarity.” The room erupted into a standing ovation. Solidarity makes science accessible for all. This was the most compelling data at AIDS2026: the human tenacity woven throughout forty years of responding to the AIDS pandemic. If we are serious about ending AIDS, this must be the roadmap ahead. Dan Glass is a writer, film presenter, interdisciplinary social science PhD scholar, popular educator and liberation activist with AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). He was the guest presenter on the ‘Rio Special’ series of ‘HIV The Morning After’ . @danglassmincer / [email protected] This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments [Image text:] France RAEES Innover, cooperer, gager: WC CUTS EATH