Sure.
Clearly there's been huge progress. I think what we're seeing now is the impact of human rights abuses and gender inequalities on marginalized groups. You see, for instance, that rates of HIV and new infections among adolescent girls and young women are quite high. They're three times higher than are rates for their male peers, for instance. You see that rates of HIV among what are called “key populations”—men who have sex with men, sex workers, trans women, people in prison and intravenous drug users—are much, much higher than they are among the general population because the discrimination and the fear of accessing health care put them increasingly at risk. Essentially, there are laws that stop them from doing that.
The real need is for us to continue to put investment into communities, because we know that community-led organizations and responses to HIV have been what has really helped drive the reach throughout the communities. We saw that in COVID. We saw that the experience those groups had in responding to HIV allowed community groups to reach out to people who weren't accessing the more mainstream health care system during COVID as well. It's a really important investment.
It's also important that we not backslide on that investment, because while people are not dying at the same rate, there are still millions of people living with HIV who have to stay on treatment. If you are on treatment, that can help prevent further spread of the disease, and that is how we're eventually going to end AIDS.
We cannot take our foot off the pedal in terms of the progress that has been made. We cannot end continued investment, continued support to governments and to community-led organizations in order to be able to reach people who are at risk of HIV or those who are currently on treatment. We're not done the work that needs to be done as a global community and we have to continue to keep that investment going.