Exceptionalism at the end of AIDS

Abstract

HIV/AIDS exceptionalism promoted compassion, garnered funding, built institutions, and shaped regulatory and research agendas under emergency conditions. Globally, however, HIV/AIDS exceptionalism has further fragmented fragile health service delivery systems in vulnerable, marginalized communities and created perverse incentives to influence seropositive individuals' behaviors. Even where HIV epidemics are viewed as "controlled" or "resolved" (as in the United States), ending AIDS requires eliminating exceptionalism, normalizing justice-based approaches to HIV care, and explicitly acknowledging how power dynamics shape popular narratives and practices.