On December 1, we mark the 37th annual World AIDS Day, a collective moment to remember lives lost to HIV, elevate the voices of the more than 40 million people currently living with HIV, and renew our global commitment to ending the epidemic. This year’s theme, Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response to meet the goal of ending HIV-related deaths by 2030, reminds us that we already have the science and tools to achieve this goal, and need resources to deliver. However, I recall the clear request to me of a 21-year-old woman living with HIV saying, “Stigma keeps us hidden ... Please, don’t let my words go unheard.” What remains essential is urgency to ensure that these tools reach the communities that need them most, when stigma and discrimination toward vulnerable populations increases. Stigma prevents people from seeking HIV testing, treatment, and prevention by generating fear of judgment, discrimination, and disclosure—leading many to delay or avoid care altogether. Reducing HIV-related stigma is essential because it measurably improves engagement across the entire HIV care continuum. Ending new HIV-related deaths by 2030 requires resources for not only biomedical tools, but culturally responsive, trauma-informed, stigma-reducing approaches centered on the perspectives of those most impacted.
CDC estimates show 31,800 new HIV infections in the U.S. in 2022 among people aged 13 and older and UNAIDS/WHO estimates 1.3 million new HIV infections worldwide in 2024, but these infections are not evenly distributed. Black/African American individuals make up approximately 12% of the U.S. population but represent around 37% of new infections, while Hispanic/Latino individuals, about 18% of the population, account for around 33%. Black/African American women make up half of new diagnoses in women, people aged 13–34 account for more than 55% of new diagnoses, and male-to-male sexual contact accounts for around 67%. This data makes it clear that achieving 2030 goals depends on advancing solutions that directly confront the structural inequities, social determinants, and stigma that drive these disparities.
At the Social Intervention Group (SIG), we focus transforming the AIDS response by addressing those inequities through evidence-based, community-engaged approaches that directly engage marginalized and higher-risk communities. With our TechMPower (TMP) initiative, a partnership with jails in New York and New Jersey, we provide support through a period of acute vulnerability by ensuring access to HIV prevention and care as people transition out of incarceration and rejoin their communities. TMP incorporates training for staff on the newest biomedical approaches to HIV prevention and care and Substance Use Disorders while addressing bias that may inhibit effective client engagement. Additionally, peer navigation improves trusted engagement across systems with advocacy toward perceived and experienced discrimination. Our newly-funded WINGS+++ intervention builds on more than a decade of our research, integrating HIV risk reduction and care services into an intimate partner violence trauma-informed and gender-responsive HIV prevention and peer support is an essential part of reducing risk and improving long-term outcomes. screening, recognizing that fear of reprisal and stigma within systems of care and law enforcement can keep women silent and isolated.
A cornerstone of our approach, across all our HIV prevention studies, is the conviction that ending HIV requires centering the voices, experiences, and leadership of the people most affected. Evidence shows that interventions are more impactful, sustainable, and equitable when shaped by the insights of those living with or at highest risk for HIV, including LGBTQ+ communities, formerly incarcerated individuals, women who have experienced IPV, young adults, and people who use drugs. Their expertise and lived experience guides us through engagement in our state and national community action and advisory boards, and qualitative methods as we craft research questions, design and tailor new interventions, develop implementation strategies, and scale up the ones that succeed. Without their perspectives, efforts to end new HIV infections cannot succeed.
On this World AIDS Day, we at SIG reaffirm our commitment to advancing HIV prevention through trauma-informed interventions and community-driven solutions. Ending new HIV infections by 2030 will require resources to scale what works: increasing access to HIV testing (including self-testing), expanding pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) access, integrating trauma-informed care, addressing structural inequities, and collaborating with communities at every step. Personal stories and current data bring the urgency needed to keep efforts focused and at the forefront when resources are scrutinized.
Together—with public health resources, science, partnership, and the wisdom of those most impacted—we can transform the AIDS response and end HIV-related deaths and new infections by 2030. Thank you for joining us in this essential work.
Timothy Hunt, PhD, MSW
Associate Director
Social Intervention Group