The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has given rise to multiple responses at multiple levels. In this article, a distinction is made between high-road and low-road solutions. High-road solutions typically address the disease and people as patients, focus on cure, treatment and pharmaceutical programmes, are noteworthy biomedical and technological, typically seen as ‘hard’ and top–down. Low-road solutions typically promote health and wellness among communities, focus on care, prevention and educational programmes, are often noteworthy rights based and holistic, typically seen as ‘soft’ and bottom–up. Whereas the sexual and reproductive health and rights movement characteristically takes the low road, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS programming seems to have drifted away from this broader agenda [Germain, A., Dixon-Mueller, R., and Sen, G., 2009. Back to basics: HIV/AIDS belongs with sexual and reproductive health. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 87, 840–845] and to inc...