News

The International AIDS Society welcomes the announcement of Winnie Byanyima named as the new Executive Director of UNAIDS. A former parliamentarian in Uganda, Byanyima has served as Executive Director of Oxfam International since 2013. She is a globally recognized and respected champion for gender equality and poverty eradication, bringing decades of political leadership and expertise to this role. Byanyima assumes the leadership of UNAIDS at a pivotal moment in the HIV response - when gains i...

On behalf of the International AIDS Society (IAS), we, the officers and Regional Representatives of Asia and the Pacific Islands of the IAS Governing Council, express our grave concern regarding the anti-gay laws in Brunei Darussalam. From 3 April 2019, Brunei Darussalam will impose death by stoning as punishment for gay sex and adultery, as provided for in sections of the country’s Syariah Penal Code Order 2013. This comes against a backdrop of discrimination against gay and other men who hav...

The following statement was delivered on behalf of Médecins du Monde, the International AIDS Society, the World Hepatitis Alliance and the HepCoalition at the 62nd Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

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...