Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Evidence is growing that the people most affected by HIV are also the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Climate change is reshaping health systems and lives across the globe, but its impact on the HIV response has received far less attention than it deserves. Floods, droughts and displacement are fragmenting testing, counselling and prevention programmes, and damaging the infrastructure that keeps people in care. In regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty and structural inequality already drive a disproportionate share of the global HIV burden, these shocks risk pushing the most vulnerable further behind.
Although climate change does not alter how HIV behaves in the body, it is increasingly influencing who becomes infected with HIV, who remains in care and, ultimately, who survives. As extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, health experts warn that decades of progress against HIV could be undermined unless climate resilience becomes central to HIV programming.
