Research & development for HIV/AIDS

Global strategic direction

Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic,  88 million people have been infected with HIV and about 42 million people have died of HIV/AIDS. Globally, around 40 million people were living with HIV in 2023. An estimated 0.6% of adults aged 15–49 years worldwide are living with HIV, although the burden of the epidemic continues to vary considerably between countries and regions. The WHO African region remains most severely affected, with one in every 30 adults (3.4%) living with HIV and accounting for two-thirds of the people living with HIV worldwide.

An estimated 1.4 million children aged 0-14 years were living with HIV in 2023, and 120 000 children were newly infected. An estimated 76 000 children died of AIDS-related illnesses. Without access to testing and treatment, 50% of children with HIV will die by the age of 2 years, and 80% will not live to their fifth birthday. 

It is estimated that currently 86% of people living with HIV know their status. To reach the global target of 95%, an additional 3.4 million people living with HIV need to know their HIV status. By the end of 2023, 30.7 million people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) globally.

Timely identification of children living with HIV continues to lag behind that of adults and only two-thirds of HIV-exposed infants received appropriate testing by the time they are 2 months old. HIV-positive children should be started on antiretrovirals (ARVs) immediately. Yet in 2023, about 43% of all children living with HIV had not taken ARVs. Failure to suppress HIV infection remains a serious problem among children, aggravated by a lack of child-friendly formulations of the newest and most effective ARVs designed for adults. 

Since 2010, new HIV infections fell by 39%, and HIV-related deaths fell by 51% with more than 14 million lives saved due to ART in the same period. This achievement was the result of great efforts by national HIV programmes, supported by civil society and a range of development partners. 

The international community has committed to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 – an ambitious target of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. Interim targets have been established for 2020 and 2025. 

The WHO Global health sector strategy on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, 2022-2030 describes the health sector's contribution towards the achievement of these targets. It outlines both what countries need to do and what WHO will do. 

Innovation is one of the five strategic directions outlined in the strategy. Research and innovation provide the tools and knowledge that can change the trajectory of the HIV response, improve efficiency and quality, achieve equity and maximize impact. It is unlikely that the HIV targets set for 2025 and 2030 will be achieved if countries rely only on existing HIV knowledge, technologies and service delivery approaches.