Listen on your favourite podcast app
Tune in to the latest episode of HIV unmuted, the IAS podcast, featuring a thought-provoking conversation with Ambassador-at-Large Dr John N Nkengasong, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy (GHSD).
Our host, Juan Michael Porter II, takes listeners through Dr Nkengasong’s remarkable journey from his early days as a virologist to leading the State Department’s Bureau of GHSD, which oversees the global implementation of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Dr Nkengasong highlights the critical role of community leadership and the need to sustain this in the face of shifting global health priorities and funding challenges. He also discusses ways to reignite political attention on HIV, emphasizing that it remains a pressing health, security and development issue.
In addition, Dr Nkengasong highlights the potential of lenacapavir for HIV prevention. As of December 2024, PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation and the Gates Foundation are coordinating efforts to expand access to this game-changing HIV prevention innovation. Learn more about this initiative here.
Meet our guest
John N Nkengasong
John N Nkengasong is an Ambassador-at-Large and serves as the U.S. Department of State’s U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy (GHSD). He oversees the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, which serves as the department’s coordinating body for work on strengthening global health security to prevent, detect and respond to infectious diseases, including HIV and AIDS. The department also elevates and integrates global health security as a core component of U.S. national security and foreign policy. GHSD is home to the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which the Ambassador also oversees. PEPFAR is the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history and has prevented millions of HIV acquisitions, saved more than 25 million lives, and changed the course of the HIV pandemic.
Meet our host
Juan Michael Porter II
Juan Michael Porter II is a health journalist, HIV advocate, culture critic, educator and the host of HIV unmuted, the IAS podcast. He is the Senior Editor of TheBody.com and TheBodyPro – and the first person openly living with HIV to hold the position. Juan Michael's reporting combines data dives, personal narratives and policy analyses to address the real-world consequences of ever-shifting legislation on people's health outcomes. He has written for the Public Broadcasting Service, SF Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, NY Observer, TDF Stages, Playbill, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Queerty, Anti-Racism Daily, Positively Aware, Documentary Magazine, SYFY Wire, Scholastic and Dance Magazine.