The US government’s mislabelled map of Africa at a global Aids conference shows again a failure to understand the continent | Kenneth Ngure

At the end of July, thousands of scientists, advocates and policymakers gathered at Aids 2026, the 26th International Aids Conference in Rio de Janeiro, to advance the global HIV response. Today, global political resolve to address HIV continues to waver and the funding that has kept millions of people alive has plunged. And no single country can replace the sheer scale of international financing and partnerships that have sustained the global HIV response for decades. During President Trump’s first term, the programme continued to expand and contributed to substantial progress towards global HIV targets. Sustaining donor funding for the HIV response is a shared global security imperative and a moral responsibility.