HIV activists in the US call for action in JID and Zachie Achmat brings South African perspective in the Lancet
26 May 2025. Related: Journal scan, Treatment access, Activism & advocacy.
Simon Collins, HIV i-Base
An invited perspective in Journal of Infectious Diseases includes quotes from 24 US HIV activists responding to the ongoing presidential assault on HIV care and research in both the US and internationally. [1]
An interview with Zachie Achmat in The Lancet includes similar urgency for global resistance against the new US administration, with a perspective from South Africa. [2]
The JID article is a call to action to resist and to challenge the attacks on healthcare since 20 January. Many contributors refer to the new policies dragging medicine and science back to the early years of the HIV epidemic in the US.
South African HIV activist Zachie Achmat, who co-founded Treatment Action Campaign which successfully campaigned for access to generic ART is also profiled in the Lancet. [2]
Achmat says the response to the US policies will involve coalitions with local, national and international NGOs and global health organisations, generic drug manufacturers (including from India, Brazil and China) and US businesses.
“Without a very rapid set of interventions, we’ll be lucky to save a couple of million people on HIV treatment. The disruption in southern Africa and beyond is formidable… where people are literally going to die within a few years if they don’t manage to get back on treatment fairly quickly.”
Several international activist coalitions were launched immediately in January to respond to the threats to global health, including CHANGE hosted by PEPFAR Watch, which publishes many community, activist and legal responses online. [3]
Reference
- Willenberg L et al. The Cost of Silence: A Call to Protect the Future of HIV Research and Care. JID 2025 jiaf267. (22 May 2025).
https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaf267 - Zackie Achmat: irrepressible health activist. Lancet profile. (27 May 2025).
www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01084-0/fulltext - CHANGE website.
pepfarwatch.org/pepfar-funding-freeze