Age, sex—and what else? rethinking priorities to close gaps in the HIV care cascade

Many countries with high HIV burden have made substantial progress towards UNAIDS 95‐95‐95 targets and ending AIDS, but gaps in some sub‐populations hinder overall achievement, even as programmes face potentially diminished resources. While certain broad groups defined by age, sex or large geographic regions are commonly labelled as “high‐risk” for being out of care, most individuals within these groups are in care and virally suppressed. Characteristics beyond age and sex (e.g. behavioral, socio‐economic, smaller geographic areas) may differentiate those requiring targeted intervention strategies. Our Closing The Gap project aims to characterize unreached and disengaged sub‐populations for targeted HIV interventions across Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, countries selected for their varied target achievement and diverse populations. We discuss overarching themes from the first Closing The Gap workshop, convening government stakeholders, implementers, researchers and community representatives in February 2025.