The State of HIV AIDS Progress & Applying Lessons Learned to Current Public Health Emergencies

In the late 1980s, HIV/AIDS became a significant threat to public health, with the virus ultimately taking the lives of an estimated 2 million people at the peak of the epidemic in 2006. With effective treatments and increased awareness, new HIV diagnoses were on the decline by the mid-1990s; and today, HIV/AIDS is now considered a chronic condition rather than a fatal disease. Despite the evolution of treatments and interventions, significant barriers to care (e.g., racial/ethnic disparities, stigma, treatment retention, HIV criminalization laws) remain. This event explored lessons for public health from the HIV/AIDS experience and how they map to COVID-19 and monkeypox response efforts.