Overview
The strategy builds on the extraordinary public health achievements made in the global HIV response since WHO launched the Special Programme on AIDS in 1986. It continues the momentum generated by the Millennium Development Goals and the universal access commitments. The strategy positions the health sector response to HIV as being critical to the achievement of universal health coverage – one of the key health targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Ending the AIDS epidemic will require rapid acceleration of the response over the next five years and then sustained action through to 2030 and beyond. This can only be achieved through renewed political commitment, additional resources, and technical and programmatic innovations.
The strategy promotes a people-centred approach, grounded in principles of human rights and health equity. It will contribute to a radical decline in new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths, while also improving the health and well-being of all people living with HIV. It will guide efforts to accelerate and focus HIV prevention, enable people to know their HIV status, provide antiretroviral therapy and comprehensive long-term care to all people living with HIV, and challenge pervasive HIV-related stigmatization and discrimination.
Related links
Development of the strategy
Background, consultative process, World Health Assembly documents, WHO Executive board documents | Information in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian
Global health sector strategy on viral hepatitis 2016-2021
Global health sector strategy on Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2016-2021