The Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) launched a special issue, titled “Implementation research and the HIV response: Taking stock and charting the way forward”, at AIDS 2024, the 25th International AIDS Conference.
The content of the supplement was guided by Guest Editors Elvin H Geng (Washington University, United States), Eleanor Magongo Namusoke (Ministry of Health, Uganda) and Bohdan Nosyk (Simon Fraser University, Canada) with funding from ViiV Healthcare.
According to the supplement, global progress over the past 20 years has turned the tide on the HIV pandemic through development of highly efficacious interventions. Many countries are close to or have reached the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goals, but progress in some places has fallen short.
In 2023, over 1.3 million people acquired HIV – against UNAIDS 2020 targets of 500,000 – and 630,000 people died of AIDS-related causes. Addressing these disparities requires a unified approach, one that is tailored to the evolving health needs, preferences and circumstances of individuals living with HIV and able to reach diverse populations and contexts outside mainstream healthcare.
The promise of implementation science is to guide these efforts by providing valid, rigorous and generalizable insights about how to use interventions with greater reach, equity, sustainability and efficiency.
This supplement showcases how implementation science can advance the HIV response by providing an array of insights and strategies that can be used to achieve greater and more equitable reach of HIV services; and sustain those services in a changing economic and policy environment.
Taken together, the collection of articles highlights the fact that innovative strategies that extend the reach and efficiency of HIV testing are critically needed to close remaining gaps in the public health response to HIV.
This supplement also offers key insights about the processes that are required to establish and take up interventions in practice to optimize efficient and successful implementation and avoid common pitfalls.