UNAIDS has announced that Lorena Castillo de Varela, First Lady of Panama, will continue her commitment to the response to HIV as UNAIDS Special Ambassador for AIDS in Latin America. Since her appointment in November 2015, Ms Castillo de Varela has contributed to accelerating the AIDS response in Panama and to raising awareness about zero discrimination, calling for fairer and more inclusive societies.

Ms Castillo de Varela is leading the national Be the Transformation You Want to See campaign, which brings together political and religious leaders, celebrities, government institutions, nongovernmental organizations, key populations, health workers and people living with HIV to stand up for human rights and dignity for all. The campaign aims to remove obstacles that block access to health-care services, including HIV testing, and to ensure that health-care settings are safe and caring environments.

Ms Castillo de Varela has also made important contributions to increasing access to HIV testing through the nationwide Tests Save Lives campaign and the Love on Wheels initiative. The latter provides access to health-care services, including HIV testing, for women living in rural and remote areas through mobile clinics.

In the past year Panama has shown progress towards ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 and has invested more than US$ 38 million in the AIDS response. The Ministry of Health has created 15 clinics to provide health care-services to members of key populations and has put in place a training programme for health-care workers to strengthen primary health care for people living with HIV.

The First Lady of Panama has advocated for investing more in the HIV response at the regional and global levels.