Namibia this week joined the international community in marking World AIDS Day under the national theme “Sustaining the HIV Response, Ending Stigma and Building Resilient Communities.” The global theme for 2025, “Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response,” reminds us that the HIV epidemic continues to evolve and requires renewed global attention. Both themes acknowledge the urgent need to protect the gains made, strengthen healthcare systems, and combat stigma and discrimination.

Namibia’s success in the HIV response is widely recognised. Access to antiretroviral therapy, progress in viral suppression, and significant reductions in mother-to-child transmission are the result of years of investment, community participation, and strong political commitment. These achievements have saved countless lives. However, the global conversation around HIV must now move beyond the traditional emphasis on treatment and prevention.

With rapid advances in medical science, biotechnology, and immunology, the world is entering a new phase of health innovation. Treatments for life-threatening conditions are evolving. We have seen the development of new cancer therapies, monoclonal antibody treatments, mRNA technology and gene-based medicine, all of which would have been unimaginable decades ago. This level of scientific progress raises an important question: Should we not now accelerate the global effort to cure HIV, rather than only continue to contain it?

For more than four decades, the global HIV response has depended on prevention campaigns, sustained treatment programmes, donor support and community mobilisation. Prevention remains essential and will always be part of the solution. However, prevention alone assumes that HIV is here to stay. It limits the world to managing the epidemic instead of decisively ending it. If the world could mobilise unprecedented funding and research to address Covid-19 with record-breaking speed, why should the long-standing fight against HIV not be guided by the same level of urgency?

Transforming the global AIDS response must include increased investment and scientific collaboration focused on cure-driven research. The barriers that once made a cure seem impossible have shifted. The technology exists. The global expertise exists. What is needed is the collective determination to pursue a permanent solution.

Namibia’s theme reminds us of our progress and resilience as a nation. Communities remain at the forefront of change, and stigma continues to decline. These gains must be protected. But the world has reached the stage where prevention and management cannot remain the ultimate goal. Ending HIV must be the objective. The global community should adopt a new mindset: not only to minimise transmission, but to finally eradicate HIV.

World AIDS Day is a moment of reflection, remembrance and renewed commitment. But it is also a moment to broaden our ambition. The world has managed HIV long enough. The next global goal must be the cure, so that future generations no longer inherit a world where HIV is merely controlled, but one where it is finally defeated.

*Timo Neisho is a Web Developer and IT Specialist. He writes in his personal capacity.