The 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2017), the largest open scientific conference on HIV and AIDS related issues, will be held from 23-26 July 2017 in Paris, France. The conference will showcase the latest innovations to meet the increased need for HIV care in a way that is both clinically effective and cost effective.

In addition to a strong abstract-driven programme, the event will offer symposia, workshops and interactive sessions developed by an international committee of HIV scientists and professionals. The conference will delibrate on following themes revolving HIV: Understanding HIV prognosis,  New prevention technologies, Clinical management of HIV, Co-infections and co-morbidities, Access and equity.

Under the understanding HIV prognosis theme following issues will be discussed: State-of-the-art technological advances which help us better understand HIV and the immune response, the factors that influence HIV acquisition and replication, and how this knowledge can help us prevent transmissions, how early treatment may promote control of HIV and prevent the establishment of chronic infection.

New prevention technologies will delibrate following issues: The challenges of designing studies to assess the efficacy of PrEP, vaccines and antibodies for HIV prevention, what we know about adaptive and innate immunity to HIV, and how this can drive the development of successful HIV vaccines, the current evidence on the effectiveness of intermittent PrEP on demand.

Clinical management of HIV theme will highlight the role of persistent immune activation and inflammation in the long-term health of people living with HIV who are on treatment,  how early treatment may allow for alternatives to lifelong triple therapy: recent results and their health and cost implications, using mobile health (mHealth) technologies and social media platforms for clinicians, researchers and patients at all stages of the treatment cascade.

Co-infections and co-morbidities theme will discuss tuberculosis in Europe and the role of migration: epidemiology, clinical realities, and new diagnostic tools and treatment options, the clinical and economic benefits and tradeoffs of integrating HIV care with services for related infections and morbidities, overcoming barriers to delivering the cure for hepatitis C: treatment costs, service delivery, screening, and prevalence data.
Access and equity theme will throw light on connecting the dots between transgender clinical care services and HIV prevention and care services, how new approaches to drug pricing could expand access to treatment for HIV, tuberculosis, and hepatitis C, why HIV is more prevalent in migrant communities, and how public health policies can increase access to prevention and care.

Besides this, integration of HIV with other care services session will highlight successful models for integration of HIV care with other important health services, including hepatitis C, substance abuse and mental health treatment, and management of reproductive/maternal/child health, non-communicable diseases and tuberculosis. A panel of health ministries’ representatives, researchers, policymakers, implementers and civil society describe the current state of affairs related to the uptake and implementation of differentiated service delivery and care policies. If treatments were priced at US$90 or less a year, a major treatment access barrier – cost – would be removed. This multi-perspective session discusses and analyses the barriers to global affordable drug pricing.

Transgender populations: Connecting the dots for trans clinical care services and HIV care session is aimed at healthcare providers, including clinicians, nurses and pharmacists, researchers, transgender individuals and community advocates. It discusses the issues surrounding care for trans populations who are also affected by HIV.

mHealth and the global HIV response: Harnessing the promise of mobile technologies for effective programme implementation session addresses mobile health (mHealth) technologies and social media platforms that are underused to support HIV prevention, increase access to HIV care, decrease healthcare costs, and empower users from science, community and policy perspectives.

HIV drug resistance and antimicrobial resistance: Science and action session will feature a panel of health ministries’ representatives, researchers, modellers and policymakers describing the country-level evidence leading to the new WHO HIV Drug Resistance Global Action Plan and recommendations for a public health response.

Hepatitis C cure: Reality for few and dream for many session will delibrate following issues.

HCV complicates the management of HIV and affects the response to ART. The availability of effective HCV treatment, with high cure rates for all genotypes, offers unprecedented opportunities. However, there are barriers, including high treatment costs, health service delivery issues, insufficient HCV screening programmes and limited HCV prevalence data.

Women’s health and HIV: Addressing challenges across the life cycle session will facilitate a discussion on the evidence and best practices related to supporting and empowering women across their life cycle – from infancy through adulthood.

The workshop on changing landscapes, changing gears: Differentiated service delivery for adolescents living with HIV addresses the particular needs of adolescents living with HIV. Participants will learn about the role of peers in providing psychosocial support, discuss the necessities of differentiated service provision for this population, and hear from young people about what they want.

Plenary sessions on HIV treatment and care will feature Professor Wafaa El-Sadr (United States) discussing priority programmes for people living with HIV; Associate Professor Alexandra Calmy (Switzerland) throwing light on antiretroviral therapy and beyond.

More than 18 million people worldwide are accessing HIV treatment, and new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines have dramatically expanded the number of people eligible to start treatment in many countries.As an increasing amount of people with high CD4 cell count and low viral load are treated at an early stage of the disease, the treatment paradigm should be: controlled viral load in the plasma and controlled replication in the reservoirs, rather than lifelong triple therapy.