Rwanda To Host 13th IAS Conference 2025

TAIWO ADELU

The International AIDS Society has announced that IAS 2025, the 13th IAS Conference on HIV Science, will take place in Kigali, Rwanda, from 14 to 17 July 2025. Pre-meetings will be held on 13 July. The conference will spotlight challenges and opportunities in some of the world’s most HIV-affected regions while offering insights gained from other areas of the world. 

“IAS 2025 will serve as a critical reflection point to collectively take stock of how and in what ways the advances in HIV science can be expanded on and accelerated to end AIDS as a public health threat,” IAS President-Elect and IAS 2025 International Chair Beatriz Grinsztejn said. “With only five years left to meet the 2030 targets, it is critical that the global HIV science agenda makes even deeper inroads in support of a more equitable HIV response. This conference provides a powerful platform for researchers, advocates, communities and policymakers to move that response forward together.”

The IAS Conference on HIV Science is the world’s most influential meeting on HIV research and its applications. The IAS Executive Board, with recommendations from its representative Conference Committee, selected Kigali as the host city for IAS 2025 after evaluating factors that included Rwanda’s proven track record as a hub for international meetings and conferences, its world-class convention centre and the fact that African nationals from across the continent can enter Rwanda without a visa.

“Hosting the IAS Conference on HIV Science allows us to showcase Rwanda’s evidence-based approach to ending AIDS,” IAS 2025 Local Chair Jeanine Umutesi Condo said. “Rwanda is one of the few countries that have attained the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets – seven years ahead of target – calling for 95% of all people living with HIV to know their HIV status, 95% of all people with diagnosed HIV to receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 95% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy to be virally suppressed by 2030. We are proud to have this opportunity to share this extraordinary success story with the world.”

While at least 16 other African countries are close to achieving the 95-95-95 targets, central, eastern, southern and western Africa remains home to 65% of all people living with HIV.

“Three decades after the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, Rwanda has transformed from one of the poorest countries in the world to a leader in global health and development,” Rwandan Minister of Health Sabin Nsanzimana said. “To end HIV as a public health threat, we need to invest in effective prevention, including addressing inequities that continue to put women at greater risk than men of acquiring HIV. Our history has taught us the critical importance of nimble and tailored approaches.”

To further broaden access to the conference, the IAS will provide hundreds of scholarships and offer significantly discounted registration rates for young people and those from lower-income countries, as well as provide free online access to all major conference sessions two months after the conference.

The press statement says registration will open in November 2024.

The IAS Conference on HIV Science is the world’s most influential meeting on HIV research and its applications. This biennial conference presents the critical advances in basic, clinical and operational HIV research that move science into policy and practice. Through its open and inclusive programme, the meeting sets the gold standard of HIV science, featuring highly diverse and cutting-edge research.

The International AIDS Society convenes, educates and advocates for a world in which HIV no longer presents a threat to public health and individual well-being. After the emergence of HIV and AIDS, concerned scientists created the IAS to bring together experts from across the world and disciplines to promote a concerted HIV response. Today, the IAS and its members unite scientists, policymakers and activists to galvanize the scientific response, build global solidarity and enhance human dignity for all those living with and affected by HIV. The IAS also hosts the world’s most prestigious HIV conferences: the International AIDS Conference, the IAS Conference on HIV Science and the HIV Research for Prevention Conference.