HIV

Our goal
To accelerate the decline in HIV infection worldwide and save lives by ensuring expanded and simplified HIV treatment and improved and effective use of interventions to prevent new infections.
A doctor tests blood samples at a hospital laboratory in Lusaka, Zambia.

At a glance

  • Nearly 38 million people around the world are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), nearly 21 million of them in eastern and southern Africa.
  • An estimated one-fifth of all people living with HIV are unaware of their status.
  • A major challenge in controlling HIV is the large increase in the number of young people in sub-Saharan Africa who are reaching the age of highest risk for sexually transmitted HIV.
  • We work to expand access to and improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment approaches; develop new prevention tools; and advocate for needed resources and policy changes.

The latest updates on HIV

Two women researchers in lab setting

Gene therapy for global health: A Q&A with Dr. Mike McCune

Dr. Mike McCune, head of the foundation’s HIV Frontiers Program, details a groundbreaking new partnership with Novartis to develop affordable, single-dose gene therapies for people infected with sickle cell disease and HIV.
By Mike McCune Head of HIV Frontiers, Accelerator, Gates Foundation
A group of smiling women stand on a stairway with arms raised

How investments in HIV prevention could help build a healthier future for women

This year has witnessed significant progress against HIV/AIDS. The foundation’s Nina Russell explores the innovative R&D that catalyzed these advancements.
By Nina Russell Director, TB & HIV Research and Development, Gates Foundation
HIV test kits

Overcoming fear and stigma in the age of HIV/AIDS

Even three decades later, Dr. Lorna Tumwebaze still remembers the fear she felt after encountering her first patient living with HIV at a hospital in her native Uganda. She had just performed a Cesarean section under poor infection control measures when the medical staff learned the mother had recently been diagnosed with the virus.
By Ryan Bell Feature Writer, Gates Foundation
Our strategy

Our strategy

We focus our efforts in some of the countries hardest hit by HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly among populations that are at greatest risk of infection, including adolescent girls and young women. To date, we have committed more than US$3 billion in HIV grants to organizations around the world and nearly US$3 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Because our resources represent only a small portion of worldwide funding to combat HIV, we concentrate our efforts in areas where existing funds are insufficient, our support can have potentially catalytic impact, and we can assume risks that others may not be able to.

We work with an array of partners, including government agencies, donors, multilateral organizations, nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, community organizations, and private industry. We also work to ensure that adequate funding and appropriate policies are in place to support HIV prevention and treatment efforts, research and development, and efforts to understand the needs of high-risk populations.

A lab at the Wits Reproductive Health & HIV Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa.
A lab at the Wits Reproductive Health & HIV Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Areas of focus

Areas of focus

An estimated one in five people living with HIV, particularly men, do not know they have the virus.

HIV treatment programs are often expensive and inflexible, leading many individuals living with HIV to discontinue the treatment they need.

Several existing measures have proven effective in preventing HIV infection.

New, more effective prevention methods are essential to reducing HIV transmission.

We continue to invest in efforts to develop an HIV vaccine.

Why focus on HIV?

Why focus on HIV?

Nearly 38 million people around the globe are living with HIV, and nearly as many people have died from HIV-related complications since the earliest cases were detected in the 1980s. Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest-hit region, with more than half of the world’s people living with HIV.

While substantial progress has been made in increasing access to HIV treatment and new cases of HIV have declined substantially in some regions, controlling the epidemic will require improved efforts to increase the number of people living with HIV who know their status, as well as the effective use of better treatment and prevention measures.

Sub-Saharan Africa has an estimated 970,00 new infections per year at a time when young people account for a significant and rapidly growing percentage of the population. In particular, adolescent girls and young women are now disproportionately affected. They are more than twice as likely to acquire HIV than their male peers. As young people reach the age of highest risk for HIV, a rebound in the epidemic may be inevitable unless efforts to combat the infection are greatly enhanced.

In the past decade, the world has made significant progress in the fight against HIV due to large-scale treatment programs and efforts to prevent infection among infants born to mothers with HIV. The global incidence of HIV declined by 23 percent between 2010 and 2019, and 25.4 million people worldwide are receiving antiretroviral treatment.

Accelerating progress will require a renewed commitment to the HIV response. Countries and global partners will need to sustain and in some cases increase their investments to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HIV prevention and treatment programs and support research into new and better prevention methods.

Strategy leadership

Strategy leadership

Nina Russell
Nina Russell
Director, TB & HIV Research and Development
Dr. Nina Russell oversees the foundation’s investments in vaccine and drug development to prevent and treat tuberculosis (TB) and HIV.
Gates Foundation placeholder image for leadership.
Yogan Pillay
Director, HIV & TB Delivery
Yogan Pillay leads the foundation’s efforts to strengthen TB & HIV Program Delivery globally.
Pervin Anklesaria
Pervin Anklesaria
Deputy Director, HIV and Tuberculosis
Pervin Anklesaria leads the HIV vaccines and biologics prevention efforts for the foundation’s HIV team.
Our partners

Our partners

We do our work in collaboration with our partners, who join with us in taking risks, pushing for new solutions, and harnessing the transformative power of science and technology. The following is a selected list of our many partners.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

We partner with the Global Fund, which aims to accelerate progress toward ending the AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria epidemics. It mobilizes and invests more than US$4 billion a year to support programs run by local experts in more than 100 countries.

United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

We collaborate with PEPFAR, the U.S. government's initiative to help save lives of those at risk from HIV/AIDS around the world; to date, its funding has totaled more than US$90 billion.

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)

We support UNAIDS, a partnership that advocates for globally coordinated, comprehensive action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. UNAIDS champions universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support.

U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)

We partner with the NIH, the U.S. government’s primary agency responsible for biomedical and public health research. At the NIH, researchers supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases are conducting research on all aspects of HIV infection.