Roger-Luc Chayer (Image : Meta AI / Gay Globe)
Is HIV/AIDS Finally a Thing of the Past?
Here we are. I had hoped to announce this in my lifetime, and especially as an exclusive, which I am doing today, on September 12, 2025. It is with intense emotion that we witness the first definitive signs indicating that HIV/AIDS now belongs to the past, thanks to numerous advances.
I am not saying that the virus no longer exists or that it will never be transmitted again. I am saying that, like the flu, gastroenteritis, or conjunctivitis, health issues will always exist. But humanity has now reached a stage of development where HIV is no longer a death sentence: it has become a treatable, preventable condition, now comparable to other minor ailments that occasionally affect us.
Closure of the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT)
One of the clearest signs of this reality is the closure of a center that was once of paramount importance: the AIDS Committee of Toronto. In a statement sent to Gay Globe on the morning of September 12, ACT declared:
After more than forty years of existence, the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) announced that it will cease operations by March 31, 2026. This difficult but necessary decision is due to ongoing financial constraints, a decline in the number of service users, and changes in both the HIV landscape and the Canadian healthcare system.
Founded in 1983, during the height of the AIDS crisis, ACT has been a central actor in supporting people living with HIV and their loved ones, offering education, prevention, advocacy, and care. “We are extremely proud of our contribution,” said Ryan Lisk, Executive Director, noting that the organization was created with the hope that one day it would no longer be needed.
The age of beneficiaries is primarily between 26 and 65, with one-third over 55, reflecting therapeutic advances that now allow for a prolonged life expectancy. While the fight against HIV has profoundly changed thanks to medical advances—antiretroviral treatments, PrEP, the “undetectable = untransmittable” principle—new needs have emerged: mental health, housing, aging, and social support.
Before its closure, ACT plans to organize a major community event in March 2026 to celebrate its 42 years of service, its volunteers, flagship initiatives like Fashion Cares and AIDS Walk, and the extraordinary resilience built in the face of the epidemic.
What Has Become of HIV-Related Opportunistic Diseases?
At the beginning of the HIV epidemic, before the arrival of combination therapies, deaths were mainly caused by opportunistic infections that took advantage of the collapse of the immune system. The most feared was Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, often the first manifestation of AIDS and responsible for severe respiratory distress. Tuberculosis also posed a major threat, particularly in the Global South, where HIV/TB co-infection wreaked havoc.
Other infections, such as the Mycobacterium avium complex, caused persistent fevers, severe anemia, and extreme weight loss, while candidiasis, normally mild, became invasive and could affect the esophagus or lungs. The central nervous system was not spared, with meningitis caused by Cryptococcus and encephalitis from toxoplasmosis, often fatal.
Finally, cytomegalovirus caused severe complications, ranging from retinitis leading to blindness to disseminated infections of the lungs and digestive tract. These diseases, rarely fatal in healthy people, made an HIV diagnosis almost inevitably grim.
Highly Effective and Targeted Medications
Today, with the arrival of effective antiretroviral combination therapies since the mid-1990s, the face of HIV has changed dramatically. Opportunistic diseases that once decimated patients in the early years of the epidemic have become much rarer in countries where treatment is accessible. When a person living with HIV correctly takes their triple therapy and maintains an undetectable viral load, their immune system remains strong enough to prevent these infections.
This does not mean these diseases have disappeared. In regions of the world where access to treatment is limited, such as parts of sub-Saharan Africa or Asia, they continue to be significant causes of mortality. Tuberculosis remains particularly concerning, as it is still the leading cause of HIV-related death worldwide, even though it is now largely preventable and treatable.
About Preventive or Curative Vaccines
Research has made significant strides with trials using broadly neutralizing antibodies, which aim to trigger an immune response capable of blocking different strains of the virus. Recent results, particularly those coordinated by IAVI and Scripps Research, have shown that it is possible, through a “prime-boost” strategy, to stimulate this type of immune response in humans—a crucial step toward developing a vaccine. Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, already used for COVID-19, has also opened new perspectives: it allows encoding parts of the virus to specifically activate the most effective immune cells.
PrEP is a preventive drug treatment. The principle is simple: instead of inducing a long-lasting immune response like a vaccine would, PrEP maintains a sufficient concentration of antiretrovirals in the body to block the virus upon entry. The most common form remains the daily pill (usually tenofovir/emtricitabine). Recently, some regions of the world also offer long-acting injectable PrEP (cabotegravir), administered every two months, improving effectiveness, especially for those who have difficulty taking a daily pill.
Duty of Memory
From a more personal perspective, this sort of end to the HIV nightmare evokes in me many emotions—anger, sorrow, and grief for all those who have passed, their families, their loved ones, and for society in general.
Collectively, we have lost thousands of geniuses, artists, actors, scientists, musicians, politicians—so many people who could have contributed to the betterment of the world. This is not the same as cancer, Alzheimer’s, or degenerative diseases, because the vast majority of people who died from AIDS were young; they had their whole lives ahead of them. As Céline Dion so aptly said in our pages for more than 17 years: “To have the pleasure of loving, without dying from loving.”
I end my text thinking of you, Léo, Lucas, Ethan, Nathan, Hugo, Liam, Gabriel, Noah, Maxime, Matteo, Axel, William, Arthur, James, Alexandre, Ryan, Tom, Julien, Evan, Victor, Mason, Tristan, Adrian, Simon, Leo, Benjamin, Logan, Nathaniel, Clément, Owen, Paul, Dylan, Nicolas, Liam, Samuel, Matteo, Hugo, Ethan, Lucas, Jordan, Max, Anthony, Ethan, Thomas, William, Julian, Nathan, Alex, Evan, Theo, Martin, Rayan, Enzo, Liam, Sacha, Ethan, Gabriel, Noah, Hugo, Lucas, Maxence, Antoine, Ian, Elliot, Oscar, Felix, Raphael, Adam, Chloe, Emma, Lily, Zoé, Mia—and to you in particular, my love Pascal.
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