News

The following text was delivered by the International AIDS Society President-Elect Adeeba Kamarulzaman at opening of Ministerial Segment of Session 62 of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Of the 13 million people who inject drugs globally, about 10% or 1.7 million are living with HIV. The risk of HIV is 23 times higher for people who inject drugs than the general population. In 2019, we have the tools to prevent people who inject drugs from becoming HIV positive. Comprehensive evidence-based p...

7 March 2019 (Geneva, Switzerland) – The International AIDS Society (IAS) today announced a new press fellowship series that aims to advance on-the-ground media coverage of the human and community impacts of implementing key HIV-related science and research. The IAS Educational Fund Press Fellowship offers selected journalists the opportunity to gain first-hand experience by visiting implementers of HIV programmes and their clients through exclusively tailored field trips. Additionally, they w...

5 March 2019 (Geneva, Switzerland) – The International AIDS Society (IAS) today welcomed an announcement that an HIV-positive man has remained in HIV remission off antiretroviral therapy (ART), 19 months after receiving a bone marrow transplant from a CCR5 negative donor for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. University College London (UCL) researchers made the announcement at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) being held in Seattle, USA, this week. Though there are...

18 February 2019 (Geneva, Switzerland) - The International AIDS Society (IAS) has appointed Roger Tatoud, Ph.D., former Senior Director IAVI – Human Immunology Laboratory Global Operations, to the newly created position of IAS Deputy Director of Programmes and Advocacy (Vaccines). In his new role, Dr Tatoud will lead the efforts of the IAS and the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise to speed HIV vaccine development through implementation of the IAS Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise Strategic Plan. The p...

The International AIDS Society (IAS) welcomes the bold goal set forth in US President Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address to “eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years”. The US Department of Health and Human Services has since posted a factsheet detailing a goal of a 75% reduction in new HIV infections in the US over the next five years and at least a 90% reduction in the next 10 years. “Reaching this target is doable with the prevention and treatment tools ...

On behalf of the International AIDS Society (IAS), we, the IAS Governing Council Africa Regional Representatives, express our grave concern regarding the reported anti-gay initiative underway in Tanzania. On 31 October 2018, the Regional Commissioner for the capital city, Dar es Salaam, Paul Makonda, announced the creation of a task force to identify and arrest people suspected of being gay and he appealed to the public to identify and report them. This follows a broader pattern of arrests and ...

29 October 2018 (Glasgow, Scotland) – New research presented at the HIV Drug Therapy Conference in Glasgow today shows that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) could be given to millions of people worldwide with no increased risk of safety issues during treatment. PrEP is a combination of two drugs that people can take before sex to prevent HIV infection. Existing evidence shows that people who take tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and emtricitabine (FTC) as PrEP have a 90% lower chance of bein...

22 October 2018 (Madrid, Spain) – The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, hosted by the International AIDS Society (IAS), has launched a five-year strategy to accelerate the development of an effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection. The new Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise Strategic Plan (2018-2023) was unveiled today at the opening of HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P 2018), the world’s only scientific conference dedicated exclusively to biomedical HIV prevention, in Madrid, Spain. This strateg...

The International AIDS Society (IAS) congratulates Past IAS President Françoise Barré-Sinoussi for her election to the United States National Academy of Medicine. Françoise is one of 10 new international members of the National Academy of Medicine announced this week. The National Academy of Medicine is a non-profit entity chartered by the United States Congress to provide objective advice on health-related issues. Its reports are influential both in the US and globally. New members of the acad...

The International AIDS Society mourns the passing of Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, who died on Saturday in Switzerland at the age of 80. Annan played a pivotal role in the global awakening in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Annan played a key role in the unprecedented meeting of the United Nations Security Council in 2000, which recognized the HIV epidemic as a threat to global security. In 2001, Annan issued an urgent call for the creation of a global fund to fina...