Tracking and accelerating HIV incidence reduction is the most pressing concern for the global HIV community. If we are to achieve epidemic control, the ease with which we attain and understand epidemiological estimates must improve. This session is targeted towards delegates interested in understanding where we are at and where we are going in achieving precision in our understanding of HIV epidemiology to inform programming. The 40-minute pre-recorded session will provide an introduction to the Measurement & Surveillance of HIV Epidemics (MeSH) and HIV Modelling consortia, including examples of some recent work on HIV & COVID-19. There will also be a presentation, focusing on Malawi, on how new technologies may be utilised in monitoring and measurement activities. The 60 minute live session consists of two presentations from leading experts, addressing critical questions and new methods for attaining robust, sustainable HIV-epidemiology estimates in southern Africa. These will be followed by a panel discussion.

The global UNAIDS target is 3 million active PrEP users by the end of 2020 but as of June there were only an estimated 575,000 enrolled. Despite slow roll-out initially, there are now at least 78 countries offering PrEP but with less diversity in service models than seen in differentiated ART delivery. Pre-COVID-19, there was a move towards more community-based or virtual/Telehealth models that have since been accelerated during COVID-19 country lock-downs. In this session, we will highlight how some countries have rapidly pivoted PrEP programming be more differentiated and truly client-centered—offering online, community, and private-sector service options to expand and maintain access. In the live session, perspectives from providers, PrEP users, ministry of health, and global normative agencies will also be shared with a moderated discussion on how a differentiated approach to PrEP will be essential to significantly increase uptake by the end of 2020 and beyond!

In order to end the HIV epidemic among adolescents and young adults in the US, the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN) recognizes the central role that community members and youth must play in research. In this session, Manuel Ocasio will provide a window into the community of sexual and gender minority youth in New Orleans and three ATN youth representatives - Ron Smalls, Booker Shorter, and Daniel Rodriguez - will share their perspectives on methods for engaging and retaining youth in research.

Addressing the needs of the millions of people around the world affected by humanitarian emergencies will be critical to meet the Fast-Track targets of ending AIDS by 2030. To avoid losing the hard-won gains made so far in the fight against HIV/AIDS, all co-sponsors of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) will need to step up and strengthen efforts to adequately incorporate -sensitive social protection into humanitarian and emergency responses, including in preparedness actions. The session is an opportunity to learn about the role of social protection in delivering support to people living with, affected by, and at risk of HIV in humanitarian crisis. The session will also provide a platform to share examples of programmatic interventions and transfer modalities (e.g. cash based transfers), studies, analyses, and guidance, including mapping of the current food and nutrition assistance in refugee camps, and examples of how technology can be leveraged to facilitate beneficiaries’ access to HIV care.

The California HIV/AIDS Research Program funded three demonstration projects focused on increasing access, uptake, and adherence to PrEP among transgender individuals in California. These were the first PrEP demonstration projects in the U.S. focused specifically on transgender communities. The 3 research teams, two from the San Francisco Bay Area and one from San Diego/Los Angeles, aimed to provide PrEP to a combined 700 transgender and non-binary individuals, with particular focus on transgender women of color. PrEP provision was included as part of a comprehensive prevention and sexual health package. Gilead Sciences provided the Truvada? for the studies. The session will feature presentations from each of the research projects and highlight the various models of PrEP delivery used, facilitators and barriers to PrEP uptake and adherence, early findings from pharmacokinetic studies on PrEP and hormone interactions, and other key lessons learned throughout the different studies.

To guide evidence-based policies and programs to end the HIV epidemic statewide, the California HIV/AIDS Research Program funds two collaborative HIV Policy Research Centers. Our Centers at the University of California San Francisco and University of California Los Angeles involve multi-disciplinary teams of academic researchers and community partners working to conduct objective and rigorous HIV policy-relevant research that informs local and state-level policy in California. This session highlights the rapid-response research processes used by the Centers to identify research priorities, engage stakeholders, and disseminate findings in a timely manner. We will provide case examples of high-impact policy research that successfully bridged the gap between academic research and real-world policymaking, including recent projects on HIV decriminalization, PrEP access, and HIV and immigration. We will also showcase our efforts to understand and address the syndemics of HIV, HCV, and STIs in California through our collaboration with the Ending the Epidemics movement.

The AIDS 2020 Local Planning Group in partnership with the California HIV Research Program will sponsor a symposium highlighting the successes of and challenges faced by research conducted across disciplines and communities, and lessons applicable to research in HIV, COVID-19, and health disparities. We will highlight mixed-method, community-based and participatory research aimed at preventing HIV infection or increasing engagement and retention in HIV care, while recognizing the social determinants that drive the HIV epidemic among vulnerable populations. The symposium will begin with two pre-recorded overview presentations, available on-demand during AIDS 2020, showcasing multidisciplinary research projects conducted in California. Each presentation will survey the challenges to and successes of collaborative HIV research in the Bay Area. During the live session the pre-recorded speakers will recap their remarks, followed by two respondent panelists drawing lessons for future collaborative research in HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, and health disparities. The session will close with audience Q&A.

While progress in HIV care has been remarkable over the past 40 years, and while two-thirds of people living with HIV in well-resourced areas are able to achieve a suppressed viral load, not everyone is benefitting equally. Unsheltered and unstably housed individuals face substantial barriers to viral suppression and optimal health. Reasons for these stark disparities in wealthy cities are numerous, interrelated and –despite local resources--consistently hard to overcome. The COVID19 pandemic has placed a renewed spotlight on the social and structural challenges faced by unsheltered individuals living with and at risk for HIV. This symposium will explore the role of housing in both the HIV and COVID19 pandemics. In particular, it will highlight recent findings from research and surveillance with the potential for use in health care delivery and public health practice.

This satellite session will launch the JIAS supplement "Integrating services for HIV and related comorbidities: modelling to inform policy and practice." While people living with HIV (PLWH) are living longer due to antiretroviral treatment (ART), they are developing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as they age. These NCD co-morbidities are not being diagnosed or treated in many low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). In countries with generalized HIV epidemics, a question asked is: What is the most cost effective way to implement integrated HIV/NCD care? In countries where the epidemic is concentrated within key populations, a question is: Can we integrate HIV and mental health or substance use services? To answer these questions data can be provided through mathematical modeling and surveys. This supplement highlights several examples of the use of mathematical modeling to provide data to make decisions on how to provide more comprehensive care to PLWH.