[Opinion piece] HIV Justice Network: The irony of HIV exceptionalism

Opinion piece by Edwin J Bernard

In the week following AIDS 2026 in Rio, seasoned HIV journalist Mia Malan asked in a Bhekisisa article what happens now that AIDS is no longer exceptional. After decades in which HIV commanded extraordinary political attention, scientific investment, activism and international funding, she wrote, the landscape has changed. Funding is shrinking, treatment has transformed HIV into a manageable condition for people with access to care, and the HIV response is increasingly expected to be integrated into broader health systems.

It is an important question. But from the perspective of HIV justice, I think there is another, more uncomfortable one: What happens now that HIV is no longer exceptional in global health, but it remains exceptional in law?

In the piece I wrote immediately after the conference for the Health and Human Rights Journal, I argued that the political environment surrounding HIV has become increasingly rights-threatening. The anti-rights movement is organised. It connects attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, reproductive rights, migrants, civil society and science. Those of us defending rights too often continue to organise in silos.

And in my previous lead story for HIV Justice News, I argued that the next phase of HIV decriminalisation requires us to close the “translation gap”: the failure to translate four decades of advances in HIV science into law, policy and practice.

Now I think there is another piece of the puzzle. We need to ask whether HIV exceptionalism itself still makes sense.

Read the full opinion piece here.