On 20 May 2026, Vadim Valentinovich Pokrovsky, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a leading expert on HIV, passed away suddenly at the age of 71. 

Vadim Valentinovich Pokrovsky’s name is inseparably linked with the response to HIV from its earliest days, and his leadership role in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV in Russia, across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and globally. 

Mr Pokrovsky diagnosed the first person living with HIV in the  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), established the specialized laboratory that became the Federal Scientific and Clinical Center for Prevention and Control of AIDS, and long served as its head, pioneering Russia’s AIDS monitoring, testing and treatment strategies. He made enormous contributions to the creation of the network of HIV centres in the Russian Federation and other countries across the former Soviet Union. He also trained generations of epidemiologists and medical doctors working onAIDS in Russia and across the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. 

He was an active voice in the Russian and international media, inspired thousands of students and journalists, and always highlighted important messages about HIV prevention, condom use, timely testing and HIV treatment, and the status of the HIV epidemic in the Russian Federation. 

Many people living with HIV in Russia and other countries owe their lives and their careers to him, and millions more are grateful for helping them avoid acquiring HIV. 

For many years, Mr Pokrovsky was a trusted partner, advocate, and friend of UNAIDS. We are deeply grateful for his tireless and sincere dedication, outstanding professionalism, and immense contribution to the global HIV response. 

He was a remarkable scientist, exceptional doctor, and a courageous advocate in the fight to end AIDS. 

UNAIDS extends its deepest condolences to Vadim Valentinovich’s family, colleagues, friends at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, and to the entire HIV community in Russia and across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. His loss is deeply felt by all those who knew him, worked with him, and were touched by his life’s work. 

Members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum have launched an Action Plan to End the HIV Epidemic (2026–2031). The plan was launched during a virtual high-level event that brought together representatives of governments, civil society organizations and international partners from across the APEC economies. 

According to the APEC HIV Project—a multistakeholder effort to accelerate progress towards ending the HIV epidemic across the Asia-Pacific region—an estimated 7 million people are living with HIV across APEC economies and 25% of new infections globally occur in APEC economies.  

While several countries are successfully approaching the 95–95–95 targets, progress remains uneven, and some continue to see rising HIV incidence. UNAIDS projections warn that, without accelerated scale-up of HIV prevention and treatment, Asia and the Pacific could see an estimated 320,000 new HIV infections annually by 2030. 

The Action Plan provides a practical roadmap to help countries strengthen political commitment, sustain financing, expand access to HIV prevention, testing and treatment, and remove barriers that continue to slow progress towards ending AIDS by 2030. 

Leonardo Chanqueo, Project Overseer of the APEC HIV Project and former head of Chile’s National HIV Programme, described the launch as “the beginning of a new phase of regional cooperation on HIV.” He stressed that while scientific tools to end AIDS already exist, many economies continue to face implementation gaps, stigma, financing challenges and legal barriers that limit access to HIV services. 

The Plan aims to address the key barriers slowing the HIV response, including declining political attention, unsustainable funding, legal and policy barriers, limited access to prevention, gaps in testing and care, delays in treatment and slow access to HIV innovations.  

The plan is built around six connected pillars, each focusing on an area where action is urgently needed. Each pillar explains the problem and suggests practical actions that governments and partners can adapt to their own context.  

Recommended actions include strengthening domestic HIV strategies and financing, reviewing laws and policies that limit access to services, expanding HIV prevention options such as PrEP, PEP and condoms, improving HIV data systems and training health workers to provide non-discriminatory, person-centred care. 

The Action Plan sets out shared targets, ways to measure progress, and recommended actions that countries can adapt to their own national contexts.   

“The challenge in ending AIDS is no longer technical. We have the tools. The challenge is sustaining the response amid fiscal pressures, health system transitions and competing priorities,” said Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS Regional Director for Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “This Action Plan is more than a political signal that APEC economies remain committed to ending AIDS. It is a practical decision-making tool that gives governments and their partners a clear basis to prioritize HIV in national budgets and policy discussions, shift resources towards prevention and communities, and remove barriers that still limit access to services.” 

APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, brings together 21 economies, including countries and territories such as China, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Chile, and several Southeast Asian economies to promote trade, investment, growth, and cooperation. In the HIV field, APEC supports cross-economy collaboration on prevention, testing, treatment access, health systems, stigma reduction, and policies that help protect vulnerable and mobile populations. 

Watch launch event:

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 15 May 2026—More than 200 civil society representatives, people living with HIV and partners gathered in person and online at the United Nations in New York to urge renewed political leadership, sustainable financing and stronger support for communities at a one-day Multi-Stakeholder Hearing on HIV. This hearing comes amid growing concern that funding cuts and attacks on human rights are beginning to derail years of progress in the global HIV response.  

The hearing was held as part of preparations for the 2026 United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS (22-23 June 2026), where Member States will negotiate a new Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS to guide the global HIV response over the next five years. 

President of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, who opened the hearing said, “As stakeholders, your efforts are needed now more than ever: to maintain pressure and to help ensure that the decisions taken here reach the communities you serve. In a world where innovations exist—and where resources remain abundant—there is no reason not to take this fight to the next level, together.”  

The event gave an opportunity for UN Member States to hear from civil society representatives and people living with HIV about their lived experiences, urgent priorities and current and emerging gaps in the HIV response. 

“The AIDS response has always been powered by courage. By resilience, by outrage, by refusal to accept the injustice that some lives matter more than others,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS in her opening remarks. “That same spirit is needed again now. This is the moment for the world to embrace the very real possibility of ending AIDS as a public health threat, once and for all people, everywhere, if we collectively choose to do what is necessary in the next five years.”  

Civil society representatives highlighted the need for continuity and sustainability of the HIV response over the long term. Many of the issues and concerns raised at the hearing were centred around the impact of the ongoing declines in international funding, how to encourage countries to increase domestic commitment and resources and how to support the critical work of community-led services, particularly by and for key populations most affected by HIV.  

“Last year’s disruptions tested all of us. Yet, this period of reform and repositioning offers a genuine opportunity for fresh leadership,” said Florence Riako Anam, Co-Executive Director of the Global Network of People Living with HIV. “The leadership of today must shape this transition from emergency response to sustainable systems; a necessary and proud evolution that recognises that people living with HIV will still be here in 2031 and beyond, with needs that matter then as they do now. Let us carry forward the same admirable spirit, that has defined the multilateral HIV response.”  

The Multi-Stakeholder Hearing also kicks off a period of intensified advocacy and education, including next week 13-19 May, during which communities and civil society will continue to shape their priorities for the negotiations on the High-Level Meeting Political Declaration. 

Ambassador Charles Masole, Permanent Representative of Botswana to the UN and Co-Facilitator of the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS said, “Botswana’s HIV response, often recognized as a success story, was not the result of government action alone. It was driven—and continues to be driven—by activists and community leaders who refused to allow the government, or society at large, to look away from the human cost of AIDS. This partnership between government leadership and civil society advocacy has been, and remains, essential to sustaining progress not only in Botswana, but also around the world.” 

Ambassador David Bakradze, , Permanent Representative of Georgia to the UN and Co-Facilitator of the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS said, “The message is clear: we can end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 but doing so will require the continued leadership and involvement of communities—and ensuring this work is supported and institutionalized. Communities are essential for success on a programmatic level; they are not a line item that can be cut out of budgets—they are critical infrastructure and essential to end AIDS.” 

The President of the General Assembly’s report from the Multi-Stakeholder Hearing, which will be issued in coming days, will be instrumental in informing consultations by member states on the new Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS in the lead up to the High-Level Meeting on 22-23 June 2026. This report and Civil Society Statement for the High-Level Meeting will be made available on the UNAIDS web page United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS.  

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

UNAIDS is heading to 79th World Health Assembly (#WHA79) taking place in Geneva from 18-23 May.   

This year’s World Health Assembly comes at a critical moment for the global AIDS response. The world is closer than ever to ending AIDS as a public health threat, yet that progress is at dire risk of being lost amid converging crises, widespread volatility and deepening inequalities. 

The landscape of the HIV response has changed dramatically, marked by shifts in health and HIV-specific funding and the overall aid architecture, mounting fiscal pressures, and a backlash against human rights.  

At the same time, the emergence of innovations and technologies offer exciting new opportunities to end AIDS, but only if political will and sustainable investment are maintained.  

UNAIDS main messages at the 79th World Health Assembly: 

1. The HIV epidemic is not over and there is an urgent need for global solidarity to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030—no country can do it alone.
2. Ending AIDS is possible and a pathway exists through the Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031 and through the upcoming United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS with the adoption of a powerful new Political Declaration on HIV.
3. Progress must not be lost and sustainability is key. Investments must be made in HIV prevention, treatment and community leadership. Shifts to country ownership must be supported responsibly and responses must be based on evidence, human rights and be people focused, leaving no one behind 

Side events co-hosted by UNAIDS at #WHA79

Saturday 16 May | 13:00 - 16:00 CEST

High-Level Ministerial Consultation on the Common African Position (CAP) to the High-Level Meeting on AIDS

Salle A, Building A, 1st Floor, WHO Headquarters
 
To strengthen Africa’s collective voice ahead of the 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on AIDS, the African Union Commission (AUC), with the support of UNAIDS, is leading the development of a Common African Position (CAP). The CAP will guide Africa’s negotiations on the 2026–2031 UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS and ensure that the continent’s priorities, ownership, and long-term development vision under Agenda 2063 are reflected in global commitments.

This ministerial consultation, convened on the margins of the World Health Assembly, will review and adopt the CAP following regional expert consultations.
 
Organizers: African Union Commission (AUC) with the support of UNAIDS

Tuesday 19 May | 08:30 - 10:30 CEST

One Vision, One Future: Shaping the Next Chapter of Health Financing in Africa  

Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Geneva 

This dialogue aims to advance delivery on both the Accra RESET and the African Union Africa Leadership Meeting Declaration, leveraging all related initiatives, by addressing four interconnected questions:   

1. What does political leadership for health financing sovereignty require? 

2. What political, fiscal, and institutional realities constrain this leadership? 

3. What concrete actions can be taken now? 

4. How can continental accountability be strengthened? 

For onsite or virtual participation, please register here by Friday, 15 May, 18:00 CET.  

Organized by: the governments of Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain and Japan, the African Union Commission, the European Union Commission and the AfroChampions Initiative. Supported by WHO, UNAIDS, the Global Fund and AFHIA. 

Contact: Sandra Orcí Gutiérrez - sandra.orcigutierrez@theglobalfund.org  

Wednesday 20 May | 07:00 - 09:00 CEST

Creating a Shared Vision to Advance Triple Elimination of HIV, Syphilis, and Hepatitis B: Commitment or Complacency?  

UNAIDS Kofi A. Annan room, 20 Av Appia, 1211 Geneva

The World Health Assembly offers a decisive moment to energize global leadership and convert policy and funding commitments into accelerated action on triple elimination (Elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B). 

The high-level roundtable will review global and regional continental structures working on triple elimination and discuss how efforts can rapidly align.  

Organized by: The Business Council for International Understanding, UNAIDS, Abbott and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation 

Invitation only

Wednesday 20 May | 12:00-13:00 CEST

Inequality-Pandemic Leadership Dialogue

Kofi A. Annan Room, 20 Av Appia, 1211 Geneva 

Drawing on recommendations from the recently published Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics report Breaking the inequality-pandemic cycle: Building true health security in a global age, this conversation will seek to identify synergies among countries on inequalities and create opportunities for collaboration on a global policy agenda aimed at reducing the inequalities undermining health security globally.  

Organized by: UNAIDS and the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics 

Invitation only

Wednesday 20 May | 18:30 - 20:30 CEST 

The Value Collection 

Red Cross Museum, Av. de la Paix 17, 1202 Genève 

A curated immersive exhibition that illustrates the multi-faceted value of co-created, flexible service delivery models. Personal reflections, physical objects and video storyboards will concretize how community voice, healthcare innovation and multi-sectoral partnerships are enabling people-centered primary healthcare.  

Organized by: Harvard Medical School, International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations, UNAIDS and Roche 

All WHA delegates are welcome to attend the exhibition. Register here.  

How you can engage  

• Follow @UNAIDS 
• Follow all events at the World Health Assembly 
• Bring the dialogue to your local community and your local leaders 
• For more information please contact: communications@unaids.org   

Media contact

For media related questions please contact:
Sophie Barton-Knott
+41 79 514 68 96

Quotes

GENEVA, 11 May 2026—UNAIDS mourns the death of Botswana’s former president Festus Mogae. President Mogae led Botswana between 1998 and 2008, tackling Botswana’s HIV pandemic with resolve and dedication as the country faced one of highest HIV burdens in the world.  

Under his leadership, Botswana became the first African country to launch a national, free and comprehensive HIV treatment programme, setting a precedent for the region and the world. During President Mogae’s tenure, AIDS-related deaths were reduced by 39% and new HIV infections among children were reduced by 73%, putting Botswana well on the path to ending AIDS. In 2021, Botswana became the first high burden country in the world to reach the Path to eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV.   

He understood early that ending AIDS required more than medicine alone. He consistently called on leaders to confront stigma, discrimination and inequality, recognizing that protecting human rights was essential to protecting public health. 

“I am deeply saddened by the passing of former President Festus Gontebanye Mogae,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “He was a courageous and visionary leader who confronted HIV with honesty, science and compassion when few dared to do so. At a time when many questioned whether African countries could deliver universal HIV treatment, President Mogae demonstrated that bold political leadership, national ownership and investment in people could change the course of an epidemic. His legacy lives on in the many lives saved and changed and in the global AIDS response he helped shape. May he rest in power and peace.”

President Mogae remained a strong advocate for the AIDS response after his time in office. He devoted his time and voice to urging governments to lead with courage, compassion and accountability. In 2008 he launched, and served as Chairman, of the Champions for an HIV-Free Generation, a distinguished group of former presidents and influential African leaders committed to achieving an AIDS-free generation in Africa. He was also a member of UNAIDS High-Level Commission on HIV Prevention and member of the UNAIDS-Lancet Commission on Defeating AIDS–Advancing Global Health. 

In 2008, President Mogae was awarded the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in 2008, including for his outstanding leadership on HIV response in Botswana and the rest of the African continent.  

During his presidency, President Mogae led and championed an inclusive national HIV response, including access to treatment, fighting stigma and ending discrimination. President Mogae leaves an undisputed HIV legacy, which carried through Botswana’s successive leaders in the fight against the epidemic. UNAIDS joins the Government of the Republic of Botswana, its people and his family and the entire world in paying tribute to president Mogae.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.