< Back

Daily Digest: Thursday, 30 July

Greetings! Be sure to catch up with anything you might have missed at the Global Village, exhibition and posters – today is their last day.

Quick links

Online programme Virtual platform Conference website

Coming up today

Convert to your time zone through the AIDS 2026 programme. All times in the programme are in Brasilia Time (BRT).

08:30

Start your day at the plenary, “Breaking down silos”, with presentations on HIV, TB and NCD service integration, building resilient legal frameworks, and addressing inequities. It concludes with the awarding of the Elizabeth Taylor Human Rights Award.

10:00

A workshop on implementing U=U positions it as a way to strengthen treatment engagement, improve quality of care, and translate viral suppression into measurable public health gains. A second workshop explores, through a sex worker-led organization in Thailand, how community leadership can transform relationships between key populations and police to create safer, more enabling environments for HIV prevention and care.

10:30

Explore how economic inequality is driving pandemics and health emergencies, including HIV, COVID-19, tuberculosis, mpox and Ebola. This panel discussion unveils an analysis from the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics on the inequality-pandemic cycle and the policy choices needed to break it and build health security.

The heavy toll of PEPFAR disruptions on children comes under the spotlight in an oral abstract session on sustaining HIV care during crises. Oral abstract sessions also explore using digital tools to reach and retain people in HIV services, HIV immunology, integrated testing and screening as a gateway to care, and ageing with HIV.

12:00

Satellite symposia take place at 12:00 and 18:00.

In workshops, community partners and stakeholders have the chance to build skills in community-led monitoring, and HIV clinicians and researchers can learn about using AI to strengthen HIV clinical care and research in low-resource settings.

13:30

The second special session of AIDS 2026, “Racism as a driver of HIV: From lived experience to structural change”, makes the case that racism, not behaviour, is why Black and Indigenous communities bear a disproportionate burden of HIV. It explores what decolonizing HIV programming means, how racism can be measured in health systems, and what genuine accountability from governments, researchers and funders looks like.

14:30

In a workshop, look at working with communities of faith to reduce HIV stigma, strengthen HIV knowledge, and build more supportive, resilient communities. Or brush up on your knowledge about preventing anal cancer in people living with HIV.

15:00

“Gen V: Next generation of HIV vaccines” gives us a glimpse of new directions and promising results in HIV vaccine research. Oral abstract sessions also update us with findings on long-acting PrEP, including the first 52 weeks of the open-label extension of the PURPOSE 1 and 2 trials of twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir, and prevention interventions for young people.

Symposia explore ageing with HIV across the life course, the power of harm reduction and why the “war on drugs” is not working, and bringing back sexual pleasure.

The IAS Regional Members’ Meeting for the United States and Canada takes place.

16:30

For something different, join the workshop, “Bead the change: Messages of hope from the HIV response”. Through a bracelet-making activity, reflect and exchange ideas on the future of the HIV response while forming new connections – and restoring hope.

Also at a workshop, examine the Political Declaration from the 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS and what it means for communities, advocacy, accountability and the future of the HIV response.

How is AI reshaping the delivery of HIV services? Panellists in this symposium unpack the promise and practice of AI in advancing a more just and effective HIV response. Real-world implementation of DoxyPEP is among topics at a symposium on addressing the rising STI epidemic. And “From community to innovation to scale” offers concrete steps to accelerate development, ensure inclusive research and enable equitable access from the start.

Real-world advances in HIV prevention delivery come under the spotlight. Oral abstract sessions also focus on rising despite HIV criminalization and reimagining HIV prevention for young people.

The IAS Regional Members’ Meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean takes place.

The Global Village

Activities to catch before saying goodbye to the AIDS 2026 Global Village include:

“Pitch Perfect”, in which young leaders have five minutes to pitch an innovative project addressing the specific needs of young people living with and affected by HIV
“Practical tools for community action against HIV criminalization”, exploring “good practice” and how science- and rights-based approaches can support legal reform, reduce harm and improve accountability
A workshop on nurse-led integrated mental health and ART adherence intervention among adults living with HIV
MPact’s Queer Zone, an affirming space for the queer community to gather
The Mental Health Networking Zone, which translates evidence on the links between mental health, HIV and TB into practical and community-driven action

The poster exhibition

Presenting authors will be next to their posters from 12:15 to 13:15. Here are some posters featured today:

Overcoming vaccine hesitancy by understanding the diverse factors behind people’s decisions
Results from the SUSTAIN trial on intervention delivery in the first 12 months of ART to increase adherence
Findings from a population-level phylogenetic study in Canada on the impact of the combined scale-up of TasP and PrEP on HIV transmission networks
Evidence that bNAbs targeting the V3-glycan epitope can develop without the N332 glycan in nonhuman primates

Just launched! JIAS supplement, “Closing the gaps: Strengthening HIV prevention, care, and treatment in Latin America and the Caribbean”. It focuses on the HIV epidemic in the region, highlighting its scientific and public health strengths alongside the persistent structural inequalities, financing constraints and access barriers.

Read it for free

The exhibition

The exhibition is open from 09:30 to 16:00. Explore cutting-edge products and services and chat with people from key organizations in the HIV response. 

Rapporteur summaries

These are your go-to resources for highlights of AIDS 2026. Thanks to the AIDS 2026 team of expert rapporteurs, you can find daily recaps by each scientific track here.

Meet our change makers

Adam Abdullahi is a researcher at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria in Abuja, Nigeria. A recipient of the 2026 IAS CIPHER Research Grant, he is attending AIDS 2026 with CIPHER. He will present his research on integrase inhibitor resistance among infants failing dolutegravir-based ART at the poster exhibition today from 12:00 to 13:00.

Mengfei Li is a PhD candidate in social media and health communication, a visiting scholar in data and science analysis in public health, and an AIDS 2026 Young Leader and Youth Hub Grantee, with her project, the U=U Dance challenge. She partners with NGOs and hosts community events to sustain momentum, reduce stigma and build lasting youth-led capacity across Asia Pacific. She takes part in “Bead the change” at 16:30 today.

Official media partners

Join the conversation

The official theme of AIDS 2026 is Rethink. Rebuild. Rise. Share your story or message of support using #RethinkRebuildRise!

Follow us on social media, explore the AIDS 2026 social toolkit for ready-to-use posts and graphics, and join the conference conversation.

@AIDS_conference

@International AIDS Conference

@aids_conference

@International AIDS Society

@iasociety

Thanks to our major industry sponsors

AIDS 2026 industry sponsors

Quick links to our activities

Collaborative Initiative for Paediatric HIV Education and Research (CIPHER) Differentiated Service Delivery IAS Educational Fund HIV Vaccine Research Network IAS+ Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) Mark Wainberg Fellowship Programme Me and My Healthcare Provider Person-Centred Care IAS Prevention Initiative Towards an HIV Cure Youth Hub

Conferences

International AIDS Conference IAS Conference on HIV Science HIV Research for Prevention Conference

Get involved

Become an IAS change maker Corporate Partnership Programme IAS membership

The IAS promotes the use of non-stigmatizing, people-first language. The translations are all automated in the interest of making our content as widely accessible as possible. Regretfully, they may not always adhere to the people-first language of the original version.