On this World AIDS Day, the IAS calls on the HIV response to put communities first. This episode of HIV unmuted, the award-winning IAS podcast, puts the spotlight on a specific community that is often overlooked: people growing older with HIV. 

Remarkable strides in medicine and science have transformed the HIV response since the impact of AIDS-related illnesses in the 1980s, which claimed many lives prematurely. 

Thanks to access to life-saving treatments and proper care, it is now possible for people living with HIV to live into old age – something that was inconceivable 40 years ago. 

Globally, UNAIDS estimates a significant increase in people aged 50 years or older living with HIV – from 5.6 million in 2015 to 9.4 million in 2022. This generation now faces unprecedented and unique HIV-related health issues.  

In this special episode, we hear from people who have been living with HIV for more than 20 years, unravel the scientific dimensions of ageing, and discover how we can put communities first in the HIV response to address the challenges of growing older with HIV. 

On this World AIDS Day, we will never forget those we have lost in the HIV response, and we will never truly address the issues of growing older with HIV until we put communities first.  For more information, go to the IAS World AIDS Day webpage www.iasociety.org/WAD2023

Meet our guests: 

• Jules Levin, Founder of the National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project, offers a first-hand perspective on navigating four decades living with HIV. 
• Reena Rajasuriar, Associate Professor at the University of Malaya and principal investigator for the Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS at the University of Malaya, unpacks the scientific complexities of the ageing process for people living with HIV. 
• Lillian Mworeko, Executive Director at the International Community of Women living with HIV Eastern Africa and advocate from Uganda who has been living with HIV for 25 years, shares insights on prioritizing communities. 

In this episode of HIV unmuted, the award-winning IAS podcast, we take a deep dive into the breaking science being released at IAS 2023 and explain why these breakthroughs are so important for people living with and affected by HIV.   

Set in Australia, a country that is closing in on the elimination of HIV transmission, the conference highlights the latest research, including more hope for an HIV cure, expanding prevention options and insights into mpox. Guests also give us insight into exciting studies on prevention strategies for cardiovascular disease and post-treatment control of HIV in children who are treated early on.   

These studies move us in the right direction. Yet, as our last guest makes clear, scientific advances alone can only get us so far. We must address persisting inequalities that remain in the HIV response. And we must put people first.   

Meet our guests: 

• Gracia Violeta Ross Quiroga, Programme Executive at the World Council of Churches, describes the potential life-changing impact the cutting-edge research has on herself and other people living with HIV. She tells us what it was like to grow up in a conservative Bolivia in the early 2000s without access to life-saving HIV treatment. 
• Sharon Lewin, IAS President, IAS 2023 International Co-Chair and Director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, helps us understand the scientific significance of the breaking science.   
• James Ward, a Pitjantjatjara and Nukunu man, who is also an infectious diseases epidemiologist and the Director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Queensland, tells us why the latest science doesn't always reach vulnerable communities. 

This special episode of HIV unmuted, the award-winning IAS podcast, marks World AIDS Day, which has taken place on 1 December every year since 1988. On this day, we remember the people we have lost, reflect on how far we have come, and rally together to strengthen our resolve in the HIV response.  

The latest UNAIDS data from 2021 shows our approach must change: 70% of new HIV acquisitions globally occur among key populations (gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers and their clients, and trans people) and their sexual partners.  

If we are to ever really tackle the persisting inequalities that fuel the HIV pandemic, we must put people first.  

In this episode, we expand upon the UNAIDS theme, Equalize, by looking closely at addressing the continuing inequities in the HIV response in a context of limited resources. At a time when we have colliding pandemics, the climate crisis, and rising fuel and food prices, our guests share what takes to put people first. 

Meet our guests: 

• Yvette Raphael is the Executive Director of Advocates for the Prevention of HIV in Africa. She tells us how important World AIDS Day is to her personally and calls upon the scientific community to put people first in HIV research.  
• Peter Sands is the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, one of the largest funding mechanisms in global health. He talks about the ‘pandemics of the poor' and explains how putting people first must be an approach, starting with what is being funded.  
• Gastón Devisich & Romina Mauas are a client and healthcare provider from the IAS Me and My Healthcare Provider campaign. Gastón nominated Romina for being a healthcare champion who made a tangible difference in his life by putting him first in the face of discriminatory practices and belief systems.