Agreement reached to expand early HIV diagnosis in the C’bean

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) says it will collaborate with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) to expand early HIV diagnosis across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The initiative aims to improve access to testing, facilitate timely linkage to care, and help reduce preventable AIDS-related deaths.

Despite significant progress in the region’s HIV response, late diagnosis remains one of the biggest obstacles to reducing new infections and AIDS-related mortality, and to advancing the elimination of HIV as a public-health problem. In 2025, about 34 per cent of new HIV diagnoses in Latin America and the Caribbean were made at an advanced stage of infection, while an estimated 32,000 people died from AIDS-related causes.

The new initiative forms part of wider efforts to accelerate progress towards eliminating HIV as a public-health threat in the Americas. The partnership will draw on the complementary expertise of both organisations to expand access to testing services, strengthen linkage to care, and promote the adoption of innovative strategies across the region.

“We continue to see far too many people in our region learning their HIV status only after the infection has progressed to an advanced stage, reducing opportunities to prevent serious complications and avoidable deaths,” said Monica Alonso, chief of PAHO’s HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Viral Hepatitis, Tuberculosis and Malaria Unit.

“Expanding access to testing and ensuring that people are rapidly linked to care and treatment is essential to reducing AIDS-related deaths and saving more lives across the Americas,” she added.

The collaboration was announced during PAHO’s recent satellite session, The Last Mile to Elimination: Reducing Mortality from Advanced HIV Disease, held at the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Brazil.

The session brought together government representatives, community organisations, international agencies and strategic partners to discuss barriers that continue to impede timely access to HIV diagnosis and treatment.

Although the region has made substantial gains over recent decades, thousands of people continue to receive a diagnosis only after the infection has reached an advanced stage. Late diagnosis remains a major contributor to HIV-related illness and death, despite the availability of effective tests and treatments that enable people living with HIV to lead long and healthy lives.

BARRIER TO GOALS

In 2025, around 2.1 million people living with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean were receiving antiretroviral therapy, representing regional treatment coverage of 72 per cent. Yet an estimated 900,000 people were still not receiving treatment, while loss to follow-up remains a significant barrier to achieving regional HIV targets.

The collaboration between PAHO and AHF will support efforts to expand access to HIV testing, including self-testing and community-based service-delivery models. It will also seek to strengthen linkage to and retention in care, encourage the exchange of experiences among countries, and generate evidence to identify and scale up high-impact interventions.

“Closing the remaining gaps in the HIV response requires far more than having effective tools available. We must ensure they reach the people who need them, at the right time and in ways that reflect the realities of each country and community,” said Dr Adele Benzaken, AHF’s senior global medical director.

AHF is a non-profit organisation providing HIV-related services in 50 countries, including 11 across Latin America and the Caribbean.

“The collaboration between AHF and PAHO provides an opportunity to combine implementation experience, innovation, and technical cooperation with a regional perspective, helping accelerate our progress toward HIV elimination in the Americas,” she added.

Meanwhile, PAHO director Jarbas Barbosa told the opening session of the International AIDS Conference that the Americas have more tools than ever to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV, yet many are still not reaching everyone who needs them.

Barbosa said expanding access to innovations such as oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), long-acting injectable PrEP, rapid testing and HIV self-testing, together with strengthening early diagnosis and ensuring timely treatment initiation, would be essential to accelerate the elimination of HIV as a public-health problem in the region.

STRONG FOUNDATION

He said the Americas had repeatedly demonstrated that ambitious public-health goals could be achieved through cooperation, scientific evidence and strong health systems.

Barbosa noted that the region had eliminated polio and rubella, and that several countries had eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Those achievements, he said, provide a strong foundation for accelerating progress towards HIV elimination.

He also noted that countries in Latin America and the Caribbean now finance 92 per cent of HIV investment through domestic resources, one of the highest levels of domestic funding globally, demonstrating the region’s sustained commitment to the HIV response.

“The question before us is no longer whether we have the tools to end HIV as a public-health threat. We do. The question is whether we can ensure that those tools reach everyone who needs them, regardless of where they live, who they are, or the circumstances they face,” said Barbosa, adding “innovation only changes lives when people can access it”.

According to the latest available data, AIDS-related deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean fell by 46 per cent between 2010 and 2025.

In 2024 alone, access to antiretroviral treatment prevented an estimated 117,000 AIDS-related deaths. Access to PrEP also increased sharply, rising from 35,000 people in 2020 to more than 326,000 in 2025.

Despite that progress, significant gaps in access and coverage remain. Roughly one in three new HIV diagnoses is still made at a late stage of infection, while nearly 900,000 people living with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean are not receiving treatment.

CMC