During AIDS 2026 and as part of the Rethink. Rebuild. Rise. campaign, VirusOFF is launching Rio Briefs — a series of stories from Rio exploring how HIV prevention is changing today and what these changes mean for people in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
On 28 July, long-acting HIV prevention was a major focus at AIDS 2026. An injection every two months. An injection every six months. In the future, a pill taken once a month.
These options could fundamentally transform HIV prevention. They reduce reliance on daily pills and frequent visits to health facilities, support privacy and give people more opportunities to choose the prevention method that fits their lives.
But the central question has changed. It is no longer only about whether new medicines work. It is about whether they will reach the people who need prevention the most.
At a media roundtable on long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis, one of the conference’s central messages was repeated: science is not failing — it is moving forward. The greatest risk arises when scientific progress must be translated into real life.
A medicine sitting on a shelf does not prevent a single new HIV acquisition.
Access is not only about registering a medicine or making it available in a country. It means an affordable price, a reliable supply, trained professionals, clear information and the possibility of receiving prevention wherever a person actually is.
On the same day at AIDS 2026, Ukraine presented its own response to the question of access — the response of a country that has continued providing HIV services throughout more than four years of full-scale war.
Russian attacks have damaged or destroyed thousands of health facilities. Millions of people have been forced to leave their homes. Prolonged air-raid alerts, power cuts, damaged infrastructure, shortages of health workers and the dangers of travelling affect access to prevention, testing and treatment every day.
But HIV did not disappear during the war. People’s needs did not become less important.
Ukraine’s experience shows that when a person cannot reach healthcare, healthcare must move closer to that person.
Ukraine has developed two remote pathways to HIV testing. One helps people find the nearest community-based testing site, book a convenient appointment and receive a reminder. The other allows people to order a free HIV self-test for discreet delivery anywhere in the country.
Together, these approaches have generated more than 90,000 interactions related to self-testing and other HIV services. Almost 80,000 HIV self-test kits have been delivered to people across Ukraine.
More than 8,000 people received services from community-based organizations after booking electronically. Between 80% and 90% of them had not previously used services provided by these organizations.
This is an important lesson: digital solutions do not necessarily create a new need. They often make an existing need visible and provide a convenient, safe pathway to services.
At the same time, a digital platform changes nothing without professionals, tests, convenient opening hours, rapid delivery and subsequent referral to prevention or treatment.
Another part of Ukraine’s response is mobile health teams.
Every year, these teams reach almost 149,000 individual people, delivering prevention, testing, treatment and other health services directly in communities. They work with people from key populations and with those whose vulnerability has been increased by the war, including internally displaced people, military personnel, veterans and residents of remote and frontline areas.
“The question was no longer how to improve healthcare. It became much more fundamental: how do we bring healthcare to people who can no longer reach it?” said Anna Korobchuk of the Alliance for Public Health.
These teams provide much more than HIV services. Their work includes primary healthcare, diagnosis of tuberculosis and viral hepatitis, sexual and reproductive healthcare, laboratory testing and other services.
A person does not live with only one health need. They may seek help because of a cough, high blood pressure, pain or the need for a consultation — and at the same time have an opportunity to take an HIV test without stigma or being singled out.
The first question should therefore not be, “Do you need an HIV test?” but, “How can we help you today?”
The Ukrainian session also paid particular attention to access to services for military personnel.
The people serving in Ukraine’s Defence Forces today were teachers, doctors, engineers, farmers or students yesterday. They bring with them the same needs for HIV prevention, testing and treatment that they had before entering military service.
But as a person moves from a recruitment centre to a training unit, military unit, hospital, rehabilitation and eventually veteran life, they may be lost from the health system at every transition.
HIV, hepatitis B and C, and syphilis testing are therefore being gradually integrated into the work of recruitment centres, military health facilities, training centres and military units. This work has involved 41 military-related sites, established 14 active testing sites, distributed more than 80,000 rapid tests and provided HIV testing to more than 19,000 military personnel.
But the most important result is not the number of tests performed.
Someone learned their HIV status. Someone was referred to care. Someone started treatment. A system is gradually being built in which testing is connected to referral, referral is connected to treatment, and access to care is maintained throughout a person’s journey — from the beginning of military service to their return to civilian life.
“Protecting the health of those who defend the country is also part of defending the country itself,” emphasized Valeriia Rachynska of 100% LIFE.
The war has particularly intensified the challenges faced by women living with HIV. The loss of homes and income, forced displacement, unsafe travel, psychological distress, the risk of violence and the need to care for children or older relatives directly affect their ability to look after their own health.
It is difficult for a person to prioritize treatment when they have no safe place to sleep, no food for their children or no certainty about tomorrow.
This is why community-based organizations create safe spaces, facilitate medical referrals, provide psychological and legal support, and remain alongside women in host communities, temporary shelters, remote locations and outside Ukraine.
“Medicines save lives, but partnerships help sustain them,” said Olena Stryzhak of Positive Women.
Ukraine’s experience demonstrates that communities are not simply recipients of support. They are partners and experts by experience — people who are often the first to identify new barriers and can reach places that the formal system cannot always access.
This is where the two central conversations of the third day of AIDS 2026 come together.
The world is gaining increasingly effective HIV prevention options. But their power will not be determined only by how long they remain active. It will be determined by whether we can deliver them to a person who lives far from a major city, has been forcibly displaced, is serving in the military, is sheltering from attacks or is afraid to seek support because of stigma.
Ukraine shows that even during a full-scale war, continuity of services is possible when public institutions, health workers, community-based organizations and communities work as one system.
Innovation is not only a new medicine.
Innovation is a system that does not wait for a person to overcome every barrier, but finds a way to reach them.
