2025 World AIDS Day: ANRS MIE remains committed to fighting HIV in the turmoil

In 2024, 40.8 million people were living with the virus worldwide (630,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses). That same year, 1.3 million new infections occurred, and 9.2 million people were still not accessing treatment.^1.2

In France, approximately 200,000 people were living with HIV.³ Every year, some 5,000 people discover they are HIV-positive, a figure that has been declining since 2012.^3,4

A chronic condition that is difficult to manage on a daily basis

Major advances have been made in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, transforming HIV infection into a manageable chronic health condition.⁵ However, in most countries, coverage for HIV is insufficient and services for key populations are of poor quality.⁶ Access to services for key populations can have an impact on HIV infection. Stigma, discrimination, criminalisation, restrictive policies, violence and other human rights abuses must be eliminated to improve the situation and create supportive environments.⁶

In France, the incidence of HIV infections is no longer declining and has stabilised since 2023.³With the goal of eliminating HIV infection set by the national sexual health strategy, efforts must continue to better respond to the needs of the most exposed populations and territories.³

Ending AIDS by 2030: a receding horizon?

WHO, the Global Fund and UNAIDS all have developed global HIV strategies aimed at ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.⁵ The ‘95-95-95’* targets set by UNAIDS to end HIV transmission globally were to be achieved by 2025. According to WHO, these percentages were 87%, 89%, and 94% respectively in 2024.⁵

In France, significant progress led to figures of 94%, 96% and 97% in 2023.³ Despite these positive results, there has been no further incidence reduction since 2023.³

The situation worsened in 2025 with a drop in funding allocated to the fight against HIV, and with it the prospect of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030. Historically, nearly 90% of global funding for HIV medicines has come from the United States. Since President Trump came to power, the future of international health programmes has been uncertain. Investment has also declined in Europe.⁷

According to the OECD, external health aid is projected to fall by 30 to 40% in 2025 compared with 2023, causing immediate and even more severe disruption to health services in low- and middle-income countries.¹ More specifically, prevention services have been hit hardest.¹

A failure to reach the 2030 global targets could result in an additional 3.3 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2030.¹

We are therefore at a turning point in the fight against HIV: ‘The scientific tools are within reach, but without adequate funding, these advances will remain confined to the laboratory’ (Yazdan Yazdanpanah).

In light of this, an international coalition of researchers, patients and donors has called for increased investment in HIV drug research.

For further information, read the press release.

*95% of all people living with HIV should have a diagnosis, 95% of whom should be taking lifesaving antiretroviral treatment, and 95% of people living with HIV on treatment should achieve a suppressed viral load for the benefit of the person’s health and for reducing onward HIV transmission

**Yazdan Yazdanpanah**, Director of ANRS MIE

The urgent imperative of finding a cure for HIV

These changes in the donor landscape make finding a HIV cure an urgent imperative. Several promising areas are being investigated: CRISPR-Cas9 to modify immune cells or the viral genome, therapeutic vaccines, or reducing cellular reservoirs containing latent virus.⁷

While we wait for a cure for HIV, prevention is of paramount importance. In this regard, the FDA’s approval of lenacapavir this year is a crucial step in the fight against HIV. The twice-yearly subcutaneous lenacapavir is highly effective in preventing infection. Beyond the practical and economic challenges of implementing this new pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), lenacapavir offers hope for millions of people at risk.

Read the opinion column by Yazdan Yazdanpanah, Director of ANRS MIE, and Jean-Michel Molina of Université Paris Cité and AP-HP.

Our priority is to develop HIV cures. We are only at the start of research.

Yazdan Yazdanpanah, Director of ANRS MIE

ANRS Emerging Infectious Diseases continues its commitment

Donor cuts to international HIV financing severely disrupted the global response in 2025, affecting treatment and prevention programmes around the world. However, ANRS MIE continued to play a central role in coordinating and funding HIV/AIDS research.

On this World AIDS Day, we wanted to highlight some of our flagship projects.

The ANRS Rhiviera Consortium

The ANRS Rhiviera Consortium has been created in 2014. This multidisciplinary project aims to understand the mechanisms governing the establishment of cellular HIV reservoirs and to develop new tools and strategies for a durable remission of HIV infection. The research conducted relies on the combination of basic and clinical research and the access to unique cohorts of HIV-infected people.

Among the latest consortium news this year was the description of a new post-transcriptional block to HIV-1 RNA nucleocytoplasmic export, a mechanism that may be relevant to the design of future curative therapies.

Rhiviera consortium presentation by Asier Saez-Cirion, Institut Pasteur, Paris

The VESPA 3-DROM survey

In 2003, with the VESPA survey, ANRS MIE funded the first nationally representative study focusing on the living conditions of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and their social needs. VESPA came at a time when the chronic nature of the disease was beginning to emerge and when the constraints of monitoring and treatment were weighing heavily on daily life.

In 2025, ANRS MIE is promoting the VESPA 3-DROM survey. This three-year survey, conducted in the overseas departments and regions (DROM), aims to gain a better understanding of the living conditions of PLHIV in a context where HIV prevention and care have dramatically changed since 2011.

The VISCONTI/PRIMO study

At a time when antiretroviral access programmes are under serious threat, the search for new HIV therapies is more urgent than ever.

This year, a study associated with the VISCONTI study and the PRIMO cohort, funded by ANRS MIE, revealed new information about the immune mechanisms linked to HIV control without antiretroviral treatment. This study, conducted in ‘posttreatment controllers,’ offers new perspectives for the development of immunotherapies leading to remission or HIV cure.

The ‘Zero HIV in Île-de-France’ programme: a regional initiative to eliminate HIV transmission in the region

Among various activities funded by ANRS MIE, the ‘Zero HIV in Île-de-France by 2030’ programme’, which is carried out in partnership with the Île-de-France Regional Health Agency, is based on collective commitment and significant actions.

Following collaborative work bringing together associations, healthcare professionals, researchers and local authorities, 25 new proposals were issued.

The programme’s objective is to achieve HIV transmission elimination in the Île-de-France region by 2030 by addressing social and territorial disparities. Three areas will be covered:

Diversify, coordinate and increase access to screening
Strengthen local understanding of the epidemic
Prevention/PrEP: expand access to the PrEP

A joint press release was issued on World AIDS Day. You can also listen to the podcast HIV: Zero transmission in Île-de-France.

Useful link

The UNAIDS report, ‘Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response,’ details the far-reaching consequences of international funding cuts and lack of global solidarity which sent shockwaves through low- and middle-income countries heavily affected by HIV.