Since 1988, World AIDS Day has been an annual call to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic as we remember the many who lost their lives to the disease. Considerable progress has been made since the first World AIDS Day; however, far too many people continue to acquire HIV and die from its related illnesses. In 2020, an estimated 680,000 people globally died from HIV-related causes, and roughly 1.5 million people became newly infected with HIV, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). (NIH 12.1.2021]

Remarkable scientific progress achieved over the past four decades has led to highly effective HIV treatment and prevention strategies. Unfortunately, these life-saving tools are not reaching all the people who most need them. The theme for World AIDS Day 2021 is Ending the HIV Epidemic: Equitable Access, Everyone’s Voice. Equity must be a goal for every researcher, public health official, healthcare worker, and advocate working to address HIV/AIDS. Here in the United States, HIV remains a major healthcare challenge that disproportionately affects marginalized groups, such as members of the Black/African-American and Latinx communities, women, people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, and transgender women. A part of U.S. government efforts to end the epidemic in the United States, NIH research plays a key role in the HIV National Strategic Plan: A Roadmap to End the Epidemic(link is external), and its goal of reducing new HIV cases by at least  90% in 2030.

Download the HIV National Strategic Plan here. 

Download the One-Page Highlighted Brief here. 

For the full announcement, visit this page. 

The National HIV/AIDS Strategy and the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. Initiative

The Strategy and the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative are closely aligned and complementary. They have the common goal of reducing new HIV transmissions in the United States by 75% by 2025 and by 90% by 2030. The Strategy is the broader, overarching national plan that extends across many federal departments and encompasses the entire nation. The EHE initiative will be a leading component of the work by the Department of Health and Human Services – in collaboration with state, tribal, territorial, and local partners – to implement the Strategy.

More details here> 

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