Converging Epidemics: COVID-19, HIV and Inequality

The long-term impact of disruptions in access to essential health services during lockdowns, including harm reduction, sexual and reproductive healthcare, and HIV prevention, testing, and treatment programs, is still unknown. Governments in many regions are using COVID-19 as a pretext to introduce even more repressive policies and criminal measures towards sex workers, people who use drugs, LGBTQ people, migrants, and other vulnerable groups who are also bearing the brunt of COVID-19 restrictions on trade, movement, and health services access.

Other key and evolving needs during the pandemic that, if left unaddressed, will continue to have a devastating impact on the health, well-being, and human rights of people at risk of or living with HIV include: increased mental health issues (anxiety, depression, trauma), gender-based violence (GBV) and violence at the hands of law enforcement and security structures, as well as lack of access to technology for information, care and services which have increasingly shifted on-line. Throughout this period, communities and CBOs have demonstrated incredible resilience, flexibility, and creativity in meeting their own needs—as they always have—and examples are shared in this report.