Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Launches Campaign to End AIDS in Children

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 11, 2026 — The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) today launched Closer Than Ever, a $25 million campaign to end AIDS in children, as donor funding for the global HIV response is falling. 

The world has never been closer to ending AIDS in children. New HIV infections among children have dropped 83 percent since 2000, and treatment during pregnancy cuts a baby’s risk of acquiring HIV to less than 1 percent. But a decline in international investment and strained health systems now threaten those gains, and roughly 250 children still acquire HIV every day. 

“One day, somewhere in this world, a baby will be born with HIV. And that baby will be the last,” said Jake Glaser, who was born with HIV.

“We have the knowledge, science and tools to make that future possible. The question is no longer, can we? The question becomes, will we?” 

His late mother, American AIDS activist Elizabeth Glaser, unknowingly passed HIV to both her children. She co-founded EGPAF in 1988 with her closest friends, Susie Zeegen and Susan DeLaurentis, after Elizabeth lost her daughter, Ariel, to AIDS. “She would be incredibly proud of what EGPAF and its partners have accomplished,” Jake Glaser said. “And I also think she’d be impatient, because she understood that progress means very little to the child it hasn’t reached.” 

“Ending AIDS in children requires an entire system of care to protect a mother and her baby,” said Danielle Tranzillo, EGPAF’s Director of Development, who leads the campaign. “We won’t reach the children and families still missing from care unless we both increase and diversify resources, so that programs stay available and can withstand political shifts and donor fatigue.” 

The campaign, the largest private fundraising effort in EGPAF’s 38-year history, will strengthen national health systems and accelerate progress toward an AIDS-free generation. Campaign priorities include: 

• Finding every mother and child: Real-time data and digital tools to help health workers reach those most at risk before they fall out of care, turning visibility into action. 

• Partnering with countries and communities: Working with communities and health ministries in the countries carrying the heaviest burden of pediatric HIV, so that solutions are designed for local context and built to last. 

• Providing global and local technical expertise: Turning evidence into HIV prevention and treatment programs that work by testing new drugs, diagnostics and interventions across more than 1,000 health facilities, so proven solutions reach more mothers, children and families. 

Tranzillo said the global HIV response is at a critical threshold. “We have proven that this epidemic can be controlled, prevented and ultimately ended. But without decisive action now, the gains of the past two decades could be reversed,” she said.

“EGPAF is uniquely positioned to lead this final push. We know what works, we know where the gaps are, and we have the opportunity to close them. That’s why this investment matters, and why it can’t wait.”