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25th International AIDS Conference

O’Neill experts will attend and share their work at the 25th International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Munich, Germany, from July 22 to July 26, 2024. Below, you’ll find information about the sessions, events, and posters the following experts and initiatives will be participating in:

Lawrence O. Gostin

Center for Innovation in Global Health (CIGH)

Center for HIV and Infectious Disease Policy (ID)

Center for Global Health Policy and Politics (GHPP)

Lawrence O. Gostin

Lawrence Gostin speaking at “The future of HIV in global health: Exceptionalism or integration?”Lawrence Gostin speaking at “The future of HIV in global health: Exceptionalism or integration?”

Symposium: The future of HIV in global health: Exceptionalism or integration?
Featuring Lawrence O. Gostin
Tuesday, July 23, 16:30 – 17:30

Fierce debates are taking place on reforming the global health institutional architecture and governance as we draw the lessons from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and approach key UN deadlines with the Summit of the Future in 2024 and the target date for the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030. This session will familiarize the audience with ongoing controversies on global health reforms and address the burning question of the future of HIV: should HIV “exceptionalism”, with dedicated vertical funding and a specialized global agency, continue? Or should HIV be integrated into a more horizontal approach of building resilient health systems, with new entities focused on communicable diseases and pandemic preparedness and response?

Center for Innovation in Global Health

Sara Allinder on stage at IAC.Sara Allinder on stage at IAC.

Session: Enabling effective HIV prevention through capacitated district-based HIV prevention systems
Organized by CIGH. Remarks by Charles Holmes and Sara Allinder
Tuesday, July 23, 18 – 19:30, Room 13b/Channel 7

Center for HIV and Infectious Disease Policy

Jeffrey S. Crowley, Sonia L. Canzater, and Tobey Noble at the conference.
Jeffrey S. Crowley, Sonia L. Canzater, and Tobey Noble at the conference.

Members of the Center for HIV and Infectious Disease Policy will be in attendance. Jeffrey S. Crowley will also be attending the mPact pre-conference.

If you are interested in connecting with the team at the conference, please contact Jeffrey S. Crowley at Jeffrey.Crowley@georgetown.edu.

Center for Global Health Policy and Politics

Collage of members of GHPP at IAC[TOP LEFT] Matthew Kavanagh speaking at a symposium with UNAIDS and PEPFAR on HIV and inequality. [TOP RIGHT] Sharonann Lynch speaking at an activist meeting. [BOTTOM LEFT] Varsha Srivatsan after an oral abstract presentation on the global landscape of national civil society laws and their association with HIV 95-95-95 indicators. [BOTTOM MIDDLE] Alice Kayongo at “The ‘age of access’ policy barriers to adolescent HIV testing, treatment and prevention” session organized in partnership with KELIN and the HIV Policy Lab. [BOTTOM RIGHT] Alana Sharp and the RISE research team receiving the 2024 Robert Carr Research Award.

Experts in Attendance:

Oral Abstracts:

Events: 

Posters:

Speaking Engagements:

About the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics

The Center for Global Health Policy and Politics is housed across Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and the School of Health, and works at the intersection of global health, law, and political science.

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Visit our website at ghpp.georgetown.edu

 

Contact us at ghpp@georgetown.edu

HIV Policy Lab logo

The HIV Policy Lab is a joint project of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, UNAIDS, and the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+).

Facts:

  • No country has all 33 international policy recommendations tracked by the HIV Policy Lab
  • On average, 194 countries have adopted only 14 policies
  • West and Central Africa and East and Southern Africa surpass other regions in adopting HIV testing and treatment policies but lag in structural policies

What we do: 

  • Track 33 HIV-related laws and policies across 194 countries at hivpolicylab.org
  • Promote and achieve evidence-based policy reform with partners

Actions: 

Check out the HIV Policy Lab

 

Read our annual report, “Progress and the Peril: HIV and the Global De/criminalization of Same-Sex Sex”

 

Collaborate with us at policylab@georgetown.edu

Adolescents and the Age of Access to HIV Services

Facts:

  • In 2022, globally, an estimated 1.65 million adolescents between 10-19 years old were living with HIV 
  • Adolescents account for 10% of new cases, translating into an estimated 140,000 new infections among the adolescent population 
  • 85% of all the new cases were reported from Sub-Saharan Africa
  • 23% of countries align with recommendations not requiring consent from a parent or guardian for adolescents to access HIV testing and treatment

Problem: Adolescents’ access to life-saving HIV testing, treatment, and prevention can be curtailed when national age-based access policies reflect the legal definition of adulthood as opposed to UNAIDS adolescent recommendations.

What we do:

  • Track national adolescent “age of access” policies across 193 countries at hivpolicylab.org
  • Push for needed policy reform
  • Provide analyses and legal review for partners

Actions:

Read our issue brief, “Age of access to HIV services for adolescents”

 

Check out the age of access policies across the world 

Addressing Advanced HIV Disease (AHD)

Facts: 

  • Research in Sub-Saharan Africa reveals that 32-71% of all HIV-infected individuals enter care with AHD, and up to 60% reenter care with AHD
  • Evidence shows that only symptomatic screening for AHD without a CD4 count could miss up to half of people living with AHD
  • In the last four years, AIDS deaths have not reduced below 600,000
  • Cryptococcal meningitis accounts for 15% of AHD-related deaths — 63% of which occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa

Problem: The main drivers of mortality — tuberculosis and cryptococcal meningitis — are under-resourced and under-diagnosed among people living with HIV and AIDS.

What we do: 

  • Advocate for the medical tools and services to better prevent, detect, and treat advanced HIV disease 
  • Develop advocacy tools and work in coalition with others, including Fight AIDS Coalition
  • Urge the HIV community to address unnecessary suffering and death caused by AHD
  • Track whether countries adopt optimal policies and interventions to better prevent, detect, and treat AHD/AIDS

Actions: 

Check out the AHD dashboard

 

Look out for our factsheet: CD4 diagnostics on the brink (link to come)

 

Read our policy landscape: Differentiated service delivery (link to come)

 

Read and endorse the Nairobi Declaration’s call to address the CD4 testing crisis

 

Partner with us by writing to policylab@georgetown.edu

 

Join the Fight AIDS Coalition at fightAIDScoalition@gmail.com

Supporting Community-Led Accountability

Community-led monitoring (CLM) instills accountability in national health care systems by addressing the disconnect between the needs of affected communities and the quality and accessibility of HIV and other health services. Through CLM, community members actively monitor and advocate for better health services, ensuring their needs are met and their voices heard.

Facts: 

  • Over 30% of people living with HIV in Haiti drop out of care within the first year of treatment
  • Only 20% of community members have participated in writing a “shadow report” to the Global Fund secretariat to make their priorities known
  • Communities sometimes face pushback that the data they have compiled and analyzed is not rigorous enough or that the sample size is not large enough

Problem: A significant disconnect persists between the needs of affected communities and the quality and accessibility of HIV services. This leads to suboptimal care, inefficiencies, and barriers to effective treatment and prevention of HIV in communities.

What we do: 

  • Collaborate with communities to co-develop CLM, engagement, and advocacy strategies
  • Provide technical assistance to CLM implementers in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean
  • Produce tools and guides on key CLM areas and co-draft analyses and reports
  • Collaboration: Throughout the CLM cycle and drawing from our experience, we successfully collaborate with communities worldwide, emphasizing South-South peer-led strategies

Actions:

Visit the Community-Led Accountability Working Group website

 

Read “Community-Led Monitoring: Best practices for strengthening the model” 

 

Read “Facilitators and barriers to community-led monitoring of health programs”

 

Read “RISE Report on Community Engagement with Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanisms”

Diagnostics Equity Consortium logo

Facts: 

  • Only 20% of people in low- and middle-income countries have access to essential diagnostics. Closing this gap could save more than one million lives annually
  • At least three million people missed a TB diagnosis in 2022
  • In Sub-Saharan Africa, most women with breast or cervical cancer are diagnosed late, cutting their survival rates by half compared to those in high-income countries

Problem: There is low accountability, minimal civil society engagement, and a lack of coordination and integration across disease areas and global health sectors. The combination of these factors hinders the development and implementation of cohesive and equitable diagnostic and imaging solutions that meet diverse health needs.

What we do: 

  • Build and strengthen a global movement by advocating for equitable diagnostics capacity through education, evidence-gathering, and mobilizing
  • Knowledge-sharing and collaboration platform to increase diagnostics and imaging literacy among civil society through the DEC Study Club
  • Engage governments to develop and periodically review a national diagnostics strategic plan

Actions: 

Write to info@diagnosticsequity.org

 

Check out the website 

Health Care Worker Policy Lab

Facts: 

  • In 2021, the 74th World Health Assembly requested WHO to develop the Global Health and Care Worker Compact to improve working conditions, protect health and care workers’ rights, and promote safe, non-discriminatory work environments
  • In 2024, the Health and Care Worker (HCW) Policy Lab was created to gather and analyze national laws and policies on health and care workers’ rights 1,238 laws and policies were identified and analyzed for their alignment with international legal standards outlined in the Compact. Considering laws individually, 53% of all national laws were fully aligned, 23% were marked as partially aligned, and another 24% were categorized as non-aligned.

Problem: Countries worldwide struggle with the education, employment, retention, and migration of health and care workers. Significant gaps exist in the domestic legal and policy environment that need to uphold their rights. The HCW Policy Lab aims to address this information gap and support the implementation of the Global Health and Care Worker Compact.

What we do:

  • Policy Repository: The Health and Care Worker Policy Lab gathers and shares documents from 185+ countries, including laws, tools, and resources, to help countries establish and implement policies in line with the Global Health and Care Worker Compact.
  • Research and Analysis: We conduct comprehensive assessments of national laws and policies affecting health and care workers around the world. These assessments are benchmarked against the Global Health and Care Worker Compact to ensure compliance with international standards.
  • Advocacy and Guidance: We aim to provide guidance to countries and help support the implementation of the Compact’s principles.

Action: 

Visit HCW Policy Lab 

Inequalities, equity, and access

Facts: 

  • Efforts to end pandemics, such as HIV, COVID-19, mpox, and other diseases, are undermined by underlying inequalities
  • Evidence shows how intersecting inequalities — such as income inequalities, gender inequalities, unequal access to health services and treatments, and discrimination of key populations — are associated with disparities in HIV service access, HIV incidence, and AIDS-related mortality.
    • The relative risk of acquiring HIV is 28 times higher among gay men and other men who have sex with men than among adult men in the general population.
    • In regions of high HIV burden, women who are subjected to intimate partner violence have a 50% higher chance of acquiring HIV.
  • Inequities in access to life-saving health technologies exacerbate adverse health outcomes. Countries with highest disease burdens cannot access these breakthrough technologies due to persistent challenges — ranging from high prices and intellectual property barriers, to a lack of local and regional manufacturing capacity for innovation and production.

Problem: People around the world experience adverse health outcomes due to underlying inequalities, including inequalities in access to health technologies, income inequalities, discrimination of key populations and others. Addressing these underlying inequalities is key to reducing pandemic-related illnesses and deaths.

What we do: 

  • House the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS, and Pandemics, a UNAIDS-convened council, to generate innovative thinking to address these intersecting inequalities
  • Engage with policymakers at the UN General Assembly, Brazil G20, and other political forums to place health equity on the political agenda
  • Advance equitable access to medical innovations, including TB diagnostics, drug-resistant TB regimens, and monoclonal antibodies to prevent HIV and malaria, and treat noncommunicable diseases

Action:

Visit the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS, and Pandemics

Issues

HIV/AIDS

Related Centers

Center for Global Health Policy and Politics Center for Innovation in Global Health Center for HIV and Infectious Disease Policy

Related Projects

Advanced HIV Disease

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