On World AIDS Day 2025, themed “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response,” Vitor Papao, General Manager at Gilead Sciences, highlights key challenges and opportunities in the Gulf region. Stigma remains the most significant barrier, limiting HIV testing, access to prevention tools like PrEP, and early diagnosis.
Vitor emphasized the importance of normalizing routine HIV testing, integrating prevention into broader healthcare, and leveraging public-private partnerships to improve access to treatment.
Innovations such as long-acting therapies and patient-support programs like Bidaya are helping reduce treatment fatigue and ensure continuity of care. Awareness campaigns, youth-focused education, and digital health tools also play a pivotal role in breaking stigma and empowering individuals.
According to Papao, making HIV testing a standard part of healthcare is the single most impactful action to transform the regional HIV response and accelerate progress toward ending AIDS.
With World AIDS Day 2025 emphasizing “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response,” what do you see as the main disruptions affecting HIV diagnosis and treatment in the Gulf region today?
In the region, we look at disruptions through the lens of barriers and linkage to care. In this context, stigma remains the biggest barrier. It stops people from getting tested and makes conversations about HIV difficult.
Another challenge, also marred by stigma, is the underutilization of prevention tools like PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis). PrEP is one of the most effective ways to prevent HIV, yet awareness and uptake remain low. Many people don’t know it exists, or they feel uncomfortable asking for it, or access is limited to limited populations at risk, also because of stigma.
We also see late diagnosis as an indirect disruption – one that delays treatment, increases transmission risk, and places emotional pressure on individuals who could have benefitted from early support and counselling.
How can healthcare systems in the Gulf ensure continuity of care for people living with HIV, particularly during times of healthcare or social disruption?
Before looking at the how, we need to look at the why behind disruptions in care. What we’ve discovered is that it’s rarely about the medicine. It’s about the emotional weight of living with HIV. Fear of disclosure, stigma, and the daily reminder of illness can make adherence hard.
Beyond scientific innovation, support models that help people begin treatment and stay on it are equally important. One example is the Bidaya patient-support program, which helps people living with HIV access treatment and remain adherent over time – a critical factor in long-term viral suppression.
Long-acting HIV therapies will also play a major role here. Reducing daily pill burden removes a key psychological trigger for treatment fatigue, making continuity of care easier even during periods of social or health-system disruption.
Despite progress in the region, late diagnosis remains a concern. What strategies can help encourage earlier testing and detection of HIV?
Early diagnosis changes everything as it gives people control and hope. The challenge is that HIV is still surrounded by silence. People worry about stigma or assume they are not at risk. To address this, testing must become routine, not exceptional. When healthcare providers proactively offer HIV testing as part of standard care, patients feel safer and more willing to accept it.
Education is critical. People need to know that testing is confidential and lifesaving. Public-private partnerships have been instrumental in integrating HIV screening into broader health campaigns. For example, Gilead supported the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention’s “Know For Your Health” campaign, which reached over 600 university students through interactive sessions and awareness activities. These efforts normalize testing and make it part of everyday healthcare, reducing stigma and encouraging early detection.
Introducing opt-out testing frameworks for high-risk groups and embedding screening into primary care routines are two areas Gulf systems can scale further to capture missed diagnoses earlier.
Access to care is a critical factor in reducing AIDS-related deaths. How can governments, healthcare providers, and the pharmaceutical industry work together to close treatment gaps in the Gulf?
Collaboration is the foundation of progress. HIV care spans prevention, testing, treatment, and long-term support – no single organization can address all these areas alone. Public-private partnerships ensure that scientific innovation translates into practical solutions. Governments set priorities, industry provides expertise and resources, and clinicians bring frontline insight to make programs patient centered.
In the Middle East, we have worked with ministries of health in Saudi Arabia and the UAE to integrate advanced HIV therapies into national care frameworks. These collaborations have improved access to next-generation treatments and streamlined care pathways for patients. Building on these models – where policy, clinical practice, and innovation align – will be essential to closing gaps in diagnosis and treatment across the region.
Expanding this model to include shared data frameworks, stigma-free care policies, and wider PrEP distribution would help accelerate progress further – particularly for populations with low healthcare engagement.
Gilead Sciences has been at the forefront of HIV therapies. Can you share some recent innovations in treatment that are helping prevent progression to late-stage AIDS?
Science has completely transformed HIV care over the past few decades, and we’ve been at the forefront of this for the past 35 years. We’ve seen the transition from complex, multi-pill regimens to simplified, highly effective options that allow people living with HIV to maintain viral suppression and lead full, healthy lives. These advances have dramatically reduced AIDS-related complications and improved quality of life.
One of the most exciting developments now is the introduction of long-acting therapies. Instead of daily pills, these treatments can be administered much less frequently, which helps reduce the emotional and practical burden of adherence. For many patients, this means fewer reminders of their condition and greater flexibility in their daily lives.
Beyond treatment simplification, innovation is also focused on combination therapies that target multiple stages of the virus lifecycle, and on next-generation prevention tools like long-acting PrEP. These approaches not only make care easier but also strengthen prevention strategies – helping us move closer to the ultimate goal of ending the HIV epidemic.
In parallel, research into multi-pathway mechanisms and resistance-robust formulations continues to push care toward a future where treatment is lighter, longer-acting, and ultimately easier to live with.
Stigma remains a significant barrier for people living with HIV. How can awareness campaigns and education initiatives be strengthened to reduce stigma in the Gulf?
Stigma is the invisible barrier that undermines progress. It keeps people from getting tested and makes living with HIV harder than it needs to be. Even with great treatments available, stigma can undermine everything. Changing perceptions is just as important as advancing science.
The most effective efforts are those that feel human and relatable. Campaigns that speak to real lives and challenge myths. In Saudi Arabia, we launched “Behind the Myths” in 2023, a social media initiative tackling misconceptions about HIV and promoting anonymous testing through culturally relevant content. “Ana Faisal” was realized earlier, which uses AI-driven storytelling to share real patient journeys and normalize conversations around HIV. These approaches help reduce fear and make testing feel like a responsible health choice.
Future campaigns would benefit from embedding more youth-focused messaging, storytelling through campus channels, and integration with broader sexual-health curricula – ensuring stigma is addressed before misconceptions form.
Looking at the Gulf’s progress so far, what are the key challenges that still need urgent attention to achieve better HIV outcomes?
Stigma remains the biggest challenge, followed by low awareness of prevention tools like PrEP. Integrating PrEP into national prevention strategies and normalizing HIV testing are urgent priorities. Without addressing these barriers, scientific advances cannot reach their full potential. Another challenge is ensuring continuity of care during disruptions – whether social or healthcare-related which requires investment in long-acting therapies and patient support programs.
Increasing public-facing education on confidentiality, privacy, and non-discrimination could also help break the silence that prevents many individuals from seeking testing early.
Are there emerging opportunities—technological, clinical, or policy-related—that could accelerate the fight against HIV in the Gulf in the coming years?
Yes. Long-acting treatments and next-generation prevention tools like injectable PrEP offer enormous potential to simplify care and strengthen prevention. Digital technologies such as AI-driven education and predictive analytics can help personalize outreach and improve adherence. Policy frameworks that prioritize stigma reduction and integrate HIV services into routine care will also accelerate progress. These opportunities, combined with strong healthcare systems and collaborative partnerships, can help the region move closer to eliminating AIDS as a public health threat.
Building regional data-sharing systems to track diagnosis patterns, treatment outcomes, and prevention impact is another major opportunity to shape faster intervention and policy adoption.
Finally, if you could recommend one action that would have the greatest impact on improving HIV care and prevention in the Gulf, what would it be and why?
Normalize HIV testing. When testing becomes a routine part of healthcare, stigma fades, diagnosis happens earlier, and prevention strategies become more effective. This single step can transform the HIV response in the Gulf. At Gilead, we are committed to supporting this priority through partnerships and innovation, helping health systems across the region achieve sustainable progress.
Testing is the entry point to everything – awareness, support, treatment, and long-term health. When it becomes standard, everything else becomes easier.
