This session will address the worsening global epidemic of STIs and the interface with the expansion of HIV treatment and prevention, including emerging strategies in diagnosis and prevention. Exciting new research in STI testing, treatment, partner treatment and prevention relevant globally will be highlighted. It will also include a debate on whether to use doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis for STI prevention, and the benefits and potential risks. CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)

This session will address the state of science on the relationship between HIV and the opioid epidemic in a global context. It will provide evidence of effective interventions to address HIV and opioid epidemics in Central Asia and Eastern Europe and implications for other regions. In addition, it will focus on the role of harm reduction interventions in reducing HIV and opioid use disorders.

This session will examine the current situation of women and HIV across the globe through the lens of data requirements and gaps and leadership advances. It will highlight those programmes and strategies which can be replicated for greater impact.

This session will examine the state of HIV cure research, including perspectives from scientists, ethicists and the community. It will provide a broad overview on data surrounding cure trials to date, provoke discussion on the ethics of cure trials and explore ways to enhance community engagement.

HIV cure research has come a long way in recent years, and cutting-edge experimental approaches are currently being tested in clinical trials. This session will bring together international experts working on next-generation cure approaches involving advanced gene therapy and gene-editing technologies. It will include an overview of this fast-moving field and a panel discussion about the promise, safety and feasibility of these approaches, especially in resource-limited countries.

The existence of the latent HIV reservoir is a major barrier to HIV remission. Understanding how the reservoir is established during HIV infection and maintained during antiretroviral therapy will guide the development of interventions to target the reservoir. This session will explore new data that inform our current understanding of the characteristics of the HIV reservoir in lymph nodes, the gut and the brain, and strategies to overcome barriers towards their elimination.CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)

This session will cover the latest topics in antiretroviral therapy, including two-drug regimens, long acting therapy, weight gain and ART, ART in women (including pregnancy) and new antiretroviral agents.

This session will review the latest findings on important co-infections and co-morbidities with HIV infection, in particular TB, HIV cognitive disorder, HBV and HPV-related cancers.

This session will assess the complexities of HIV prevention trial design in the era of effective PrEP and discuss alternative designs and analytic techniques to help guide the design of future prevention trials. Given the proven efficacy of oral PrEP, the design of studies to determine the efficacy of new prevention technologies has become more complex. This session will be a state-of-the-art update of ongoing HIV prevention trials and new options coming soon into trials. It will explore theoretical and practical issues influencing trial design in an era when effective HIV prevention using oral PrEP is already widely available. This will include the use of different endpoints, new statistical analysis techniques, ethical considerations and practical issues of enrolling and randomizing patients in HIV prevention trials.

Biomedical prevention strategies – particularly PrEP – are highly efficacious, but their impact is greatest so far in men who have sex with men. Women are seemingly falling behind with prevention options; a common narrative still exists that PrEP works less well in women and that women do not take PrEP. Strikingly, the newest PrEP option (oral emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide) was recently approved with an indication that explicitly excludes women. Together, this begs the question: Are women losing out when it comes to biomedical HIV prevention?

This session is designed to highlight innovative interventions that have been implemented globally to address stigma on individual, societal, structural and policy levels. It will showcase that stigma towards a person living with HIV undermines access to diagnosis, treatment and successful health outcomes.

This session will discuss the current PrEP cascade, providing a global perspective of PrEP retention among young men who have sex with men. The session will also showcase some innovative strategies to retain people on PrEP, such as integration into existing services, specifically family planning and STI clinics.