OVERVIEW

AIDS 2026: The 26th International AIDS Conference is organized by International AIDS Society (IAS) and will be held from Jul 26 - 31, 2026 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Theme: Rethink. Rebuild. Rise.

Description:
AIDS 2026, the 26th International AIDS Conference, taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and virtually, comes at a crucial time for the HIV response. In the face of an unprecedented funding crisis and major cutbacks to HIV programmes, the world’s largest conference on HIV and AIDS will bring together people living with HIV, researchers, policy makers, healthcare professionals, funders, media and communities.

AIDS 2026 in context
Scientific progress over the 40-plus years of the HIV response has transformed HIV into a manageable condition if you have access to treatment. By the end of 2024, the number of AIDS-related deaths had dropped by 54% and new HIV acquisitions by 40% since 2010. HIV treatment is now so effective that the virus can be undetectable and, therefore, untransmittable. We have highly successful long-acting HIV prevention options, including the injectables, lenacapavir and cabotegravir, with a long-acting oral prevention technology on the horizon.

Despite these gains, UNAIDS data suggests stagnant progress in recent years: 1.3 million people acquired HIV and 630,000 people died of AIDS-related causes in 2023 and again in 2024. There continue to be huge gaps in HIV prevention and treatment: 9.2 million people living with HIV were not getting life-saving medicines in 2024. This is because old barriers to HIV services persist. Among them are stigma and discrimination, criminalization and structural inequalities between populations and countries.

AIDS 2026 Objectives:
Objective 1
Accelerate innovation in basic and clinical science, spanning research into reducing HIV acquisition and transmission, developing immunotherapeutics and vaccines, understanding pathogenesis, improving treatment options, managing co-infections, co-morbidities and ageing-related issues, and advancing towards a cure and/or sustained remission strategies.

Objective 2
Enhance HIV prevention to optimize cost-effective biomedical, behavioural and structural interventions, with special attention on identifying and overcoming implementation challenges and scaling successful HIV prevention strategies.

Objective 3
Advance interdisciplinary collaboration in programme implementation to improve HIV outcomes across all life stages, with emphasis on translating research findings into actionable policies and practices.

Objective 4
Promote a human rights-based and evidence-informed HIV response that is tailored to the needs of key and vulnerable populations, protects civil society spaces and strengthens community resilience.