Renee Heffron, Ph.D., M.P.H., on HIV community resilience | IAS 2026

The HIV field has spent the past 18 months adjusting to major disruption in U.S. government funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, but it has responded by forming new collaborations and seeking new funders rather than losing ground, according to Renee Heffron, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and director of the university's Center for AIDS Research. Heffron spoke with Managed Healthcare Executive (MHE) ahead of AIDS 2026, the 26th International AIDS Conference, the International AIDS Society (IAS) meeting being held this coming week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“As a community of practice, it is an incredibly resilient and innovative community,” Heffron told MHE.

HIV treatment and prevention programs around the world and espeically in Africa have been affected by the Trump administration’s dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, one of the main implementers of programs funded under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and by changes to PEPFAR itself. PEPFAR funding for prevention programs organized by community groups has been limited or cut off by the Trump administration. According to a survey conducted by amFAR, 1,700 delivery sites have been closed because of disruptions in PEPFAR funding. Those survey results are being presented as research findings at the IAS meeting and were shared at press conference last week. The Trump administration has said that it is moving toward a more effective way of supporting HIV/AIDS prevention by negotiating memorandums of understanding with governments instead of supporting community programs.

In this interview with MHE, Heffron discusses why she believes the community can sustain progress toward ending the HIV epidemic despite the disruption and what continued momentum on prevention will require.

Heffron said the stakes are high for HIV prevention specifically, since progress there depends on sustained coverage rather than a one-time gain.

In the video, Heffron discusses how the HIV field is adapting to funding disruption and what she hopes attendees will take from IAS meeting. “I think it is set up to feel the energy and that resilience and those sparks of creativity,” she told MHE.