That is not a fantasy—it is a matter of choice.

Dramatic reductions in HIV incidence and mortality have been accomplished in very different settings around the world, from Malawi and Thailand to London and San Francisco. While success was achieved in different ways in each location, taken together they demonstrate the gains that can be realized on a global scale.

This publication highlights six locations that have made impressive progress against the epidemic. Each visual provides an HIV surveillance timeline as well as crucial policy changes—inflection points—that contributed to success.

The website (and accompanying brochure) also includes a global timeline with “headlines of the future,” noting “game-changer” policies and research advances, as well as other social and structural changes that, based on current evidence, would directly impact progress on HIV. A future scenario of rapid scale-up of expected innovations, such as long-acting treatment and prevention, a partially effective vaccine and, one day, a cure, are highlighted.

For all the scientific and social complexity of AIDS, there is no secret about what it will take to end the epidemic, as demonstrated by these six examples in unique ways:

• Campaigns to encourage HIV testing, particularly among groups most affected
• Free and easy access to treatment at diagnosis with HIV, regardless of CD4 level
• Scale-up of evidence-based HIV prevention, such as voluntary medical male circumcision, pre-exposure prophylaxis, and harm reduction
• Concerted efforts to provide human rights-based services and social supports alongside programs to fight stigma and discrimination, ideally in the context of broad health care access

Contained in these visuals is a new narrative for success. Together, policy makers, researchers, and communities can end the AIDS epidemic in our cities, our countries, and in our world. Some places are doing it already.

We must learn from these successes and demand the investment and policies needed to end the AIDS epidemic.