Rethinking prevention

The funding crisis reshaping global health has hit HIV prevention particularly hard. At the same time, science is handing us some of the most powerful HIV prevention tools we have ever had – long-acting injectables like lenacapavir and cabotegravir, and a monthly oral pill on the horizon.

But science alone does not deliver prevention. That takes systems, policy, funding and a trained healthcare workforce. It takes communities leading in planning, implementation and holding the HIV response to account.

This episode of HIV unmuted is a curtain raiser for AIDS 2026, the 26th International AIDS Conference, taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and virtually. The theme of the conference, Rethink. Rebuild. Rise., is also the spirit of this episode. We look at what rethinking prevention means in people's lives, what it will take to rebuild the systems and political will to deliver innovation at scale, and how the global HIV response can rise to this moment.

Meet our guests:

Axel Bautista, Community Mobilization Coordinator at MPACT Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights, shares what rethinking prevention really means on the ground, in communities and in people’s lives.

Nomathemba Chandiwana, Chief Scientific Officer at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation in Cape Town and a clinician-scientist at the forefront of HIV prevention, unpacks the systems and science needed to rebuild prevention and make innovation accessible to all.

Beatriz Grinsztejn, President of the International AIDS Society and infectious disease physician-researcher at Fiocruz in Rio de Janeiro, asks how the global HIV response can rise at AIDS 2026.

Meet our host:

Ibanomonde Ngema is a South African HIV advocate for young people living with and affected by HIV. She has spoken at major global platforms, including IAS conferences and the United Nations General Assembly. She serves as South Africa’s Her Voice Fund Ambassador and UNFPA’s Regional Youth Advocate for East and Southern Africa and has authored a paper in The Lancet.