UNAIDS is deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Vadim Valentinovich Pokrovsky, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a leading expert on HIV, on 20 May 2026 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.