World AIDS Day 2021: The Role of Research in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy

Every year, World AIDS Day offers a unique opportunity for people worldwide to acknowledge the significant progress made to end the HIV pandemic, address challenges that remain, discuss the best path forward, and pay tribute to those whose lives were lost fighting HIV. To recognize World AIDS Day, on December 1, the Office of AIDS Research (OAR) will host the National Institutes of Health (NIH) World AIDS Day 2021 Virtual Event: The Role of Research in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), and I encourage you to join us.

Coinciding with World AIDS Day, the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) will release a revised NHAS on December 1. The 2022 to 2025 NHAS will highlight the critical role of research in continued progress toward ending the HIV pandemic and improving the health of people living with or significantly affected by HIV. This year’s World AIDS Day will focus on the role of NIH in HIV/AIDS research. OAR continues to be central in setting the domestic and global HIV research agenda for NIH.

This year—2021— marks the 40th anniversary since the first Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of a condition later defined as AIDS. Since that time, groundbreaking research has helped turn a once-fatal disease into a manageable chronic condition with effective treatment. Although we have the tools in hand to end the HIV pandemic, challenges remain that can be overcome only through a whole-of-science and whole-of-society approach that is tailored to address the needs of diverse communities and one that includes partnerships across all sectors. As the NIH coordinator of HIV/AIDS research, OAR is committed to partnership efforts that will advance research to end the pandemic and improve health outcomes for people at risk for or affected by HIV.

The World AIDS Day event features compelling discussions about the next chapter of high-impact HIV research, the types of multisectoral and interdisciplinary partnerships necessary for success, and the integral role of community stakeholders.

We are honored to welcome Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, who represents California’s 13th Congressional District, for live remarks. Mr. Harold Phillips, Director of the ONAP, will provide recorded remarks. The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, Director of ICAP Global Health and Co-Principal Investigator of the HIV Prevention Trials Network at Columbia University. A diverse group of panelists (see below) representing early-career investigators, academia and research, community engagement leaders, and industry will join Dr. El-Sadr:

• Rahima Benhabbour, M.Sc., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina_North Carolina State University Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Gina Brown, R.S.W., Director of Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement (SPaCE), Southern AIDS Coalition
• Luis Montaner, D.V.M., M.Sc., D.Phil., Vice President, Scientific Operations, Kean Family Endowed Chair Professor, Program Leader, HIV-1 Research Program, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Leukocyte Biology, The Wistar Institute, BEAT-HIV Collaboratory
• LaRon E. Nelson, Ph.D., RN, FNP, FNAP, FNYAM, FAAN, Associate Dean for Global Affairs and Planetary Health, Independence Foundation Associate Professor, Yale School of Nursing
• Kathleen E. Squires, M.D., Executive Director, Global Clinical Research, Merck & Co.
• Blanton S. Tolbert, Ph.D., Chairperson, NIH OAR Advisory Council, Rudolph and Susan Rense Professor, Department of Chemistry, Vice Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

The NIH World AIDS Day program will stream on the NIH VideoCasting channel on December 1, 2021, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET, will be open to the public, and will include an opportunity to submit questions. For details, please see the OAR World AIDS Day event webpage.

Maureen M. Goodenow, Ph.D.
Associate Director for AIDS Research and
Director, Office of AIDS Research
National Institutes of Health

Read last month’s blog.