African countries have renewed calls for equitable, affordable, and timely access to long-acting HIV prevention and treatment innovations, warning that scientific breakthroughs alone will not end the epidemic without deliberate action to close access gaps. This call was made during a high-level UNAIDS meeting in Brazil.

• Kenya’s National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCOP) Head, Dr Andrew Mulwa, delivered the Africa Regional Statement, highlighting the transformative potential of long-acting antiretroviral medicines (ARVs).

• African Member States welcomed long-acting injectable ARVs but stressed their impact depends on affordability, regulatory readiness, and timely availability across low- and middle-income countries.

• Current data shows adult viral suppression at approximately 73 percent, starkly contrasting with just 48 percent among children living with HIV, and adolescent girls aged 15–19 in sub-Saharan Africa are nearly six times more likely to acquire HIV than boys of the same age.