23-07-2025
Updated HIV guidelines from WHO promote prevention and lower barriers to care
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced new guidelines for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention and management that will reshape the global HIV response. According to WHO, HIV, a virus that attacks the immune system, has resulted in 44.1 million deaths worldwide and has infected a further 40.8 million people who live with the virus today. If left without treatment, the virus eventually causes severe damage to the immune system and can progress to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
There is no cure for HIV, but highly effective treatments can slow or stop the virus from replicating, allowing infected individuals to fight other infections. New medications offer an alternative to daily antiretroviral treatment (ART) and come in the form of long-acting injectables, which are administered twice per year. On 14 July 2025, WHO broadened the use of these injectables to be administered as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) - a recommendation that will change the epidemiology of HIV if instituted.
Long-acting injectable PrEP, which only needs to be administered twice per year, will transform the HIV landscape. People who face challenges with daily adherence to their current PrEP treatments, stigmatised groups and those who lack consistent access to healthcare will have a new, safe, effective option to prevent HIV infection. Also, as part of the new guidelines, HIV testing has been simplified, broadening the availability of both long-acting injectable PrEP and the traditional daily PrEP by removing barriers. By enabling community-based delivery of long-acting PrEP through pharmacies, clinics and telehealth services, the WHO hopes to dramatically increase the proportion of at-risk individuals who have easy, affordable access to prevention services. Broader access to PrEP worldwide will result in fewer new HIV infections in the future.
GlobalData epidemiologists monitor incident cases of HIV in the seven major pharmaceutical markets (7MM: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US) and have already forecasted a slight decrease in the annual number of new cases, from almost 59,000 new cases in 2023 to 56,000 in 2033. With broader access to PrEP across the 7MM, it is reasonable to expect a more notable decrease in annual new cases, especially in at-risk groups who are already candidates for daily PrEP. These averted HIV infections will translate to fewer overall HIV cases, which has a compounding effect. Fewer HIV cases in the community equals less overall risk of infection, even for those who are not protected by PrEP.
The new WHO recommendations come at a particularly uncertain time for global health funding. This suggests that while the technology to decrease the number of new cases — and thus the number of people who will need daily, lifelong treatment — is available, the political will to ensure this decrease occurs may be lacking. New PrEP options recommended by WHO will need to be backed with funding to implement at scale in communities most affected by HIV/AIDS in order to deliver on the expected decrease in annual new cases.
If achieved, this prevention will pay dividends. Fewer new infections will have a ripple effect across the long-term health of communities, improve economic productivity, decrease community instability and promote human rights globally.
"Updated HIV guidelines from WHO promote prevention and lower barriers to care" was originally created and published by Clinical Trials Arena, a GlobalData owned brand.
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