AIDS 2024 Daily Digest: Sunday, July 21

We have another full day of pre-conferences. The AIDS 2024 Global Village also opens its doors today, celebrating its 20th anniversary.
The Daily Digest is your guide for the day ahead and a look back at the highlights from the day before and features the latest news from the conference.

Coming up today

Convert to your time zone through the AIDS 2024 programme.

AIDS 2024 pre-conferences take place, covering a range of topics (please check the start and end time for each pre-conference). Pre-conferences organized by IAS programmes today are:

08:00-16:30 CEST – “Towards a truly global HIV cure” reflects on current research directions, scientific and structural challenges of conducting HIV cure research, and expanding efforts across regions. It features three of the people known to have been cured of HIV – the London Patient, the City of Hope Patient, and the Dusseldorf Patient. 

08:00-12:30 CEST – “The 10th symposium on children and adolescents with perinatal HIV exposure” addresses the needs of the more than 16 million children under the age of 15 years who experienced vertical exposure to HIV. 

08:00-16:30 CEST – “Community-led monitoring in a changing world” explores the strengths and needs of community-led monitoring, a powerful social accountability mechanism.

 Global Village

10:30 CEST  – The Global Village opens to visitors. As always, access is free and open to the public. It offers a blend of more than 200 speaker sessions and cultural activities, with the programme created through public applications from a diversity of individuals, groups and organizations.
Among these is the Youth Pavilion, led by the Munich Youth Force this year. It hosts a wide range of events that highlight and address the challenges faced by young people in the HIV response.

The Global Village is located in Halls A1 and A2, and will be open until Thursday, 25 July.

16:30 CEST 

You won’t want to miss the Global Village opening session at this time! It features an appearance by local drag queen Janisha Jones and a live performance by South African singer-songwriter Nomfusi. The Global Village opening includes brief addresses by IAS President Sharon Lewin and the Mayor of Munich, Dominik Krause, and a panel discussion that explores a core value of the Global Village, community leadership.

Expect celebration! When the Global Village was launched at AIDS 2004 in Bangkok, it was revolutionary, weaving community perspectives of science, community and leadership into the global HIV response. It has cemented its place as an inclusive hub of collaborative brilliance, showcasing how scientific breakthroughs transform into actions that directly impact the lives of people living with and affected by HIV.

Meet the IAS change makers 

Each day, the Daily Digest follows the IAS change makers at AIDS 2024: recipients of IAS grant, fellowship or mentorship opportunities. They are the next generation of HIV researchers, advocates and healthcare providers improving the lives of people living with and affected by HIV.

Today’s change makers are Charles Brown and Christina Laurenzi. 

Charles is an advocate and researcher from Uganda. He is implementing a project to increase HIV cure research engagement with communities, policy makers and funders in Uganda as part of the IAS/AVAC Cure Advocacy Grant Programme. Charles is co-chairing a session at the “Towards a truly global HIV cure” pre-conference today. 

Christina is a researcher based at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She is implementing a project on responding to barriers in HIV and sexual and reproductive health for adolescent mothers living with HIV and their children, with the support of the CIPHER Grant Programme. Christina is a featured speaker at the “10th symposium on children and adolescents with perinatal HIV exposure” today. 

Conference coverage

An HIV patient is in remission after a unique stem cell transplant. Why it could be a path to a cure – CBC News (Canada)

Medical milestone: Possible HIV ‘cure’ in German leukemia patient – Vanguard (Nigeria)

Long-acting PrEP acceptable, feasible among men, women in trial – Healio (US)

Studies Support Use of Daily Antibiotic to Prevent STDs in High-Risk Groups – HealthDay (US)

Official media partners coverage

The Next Berlin Patient: Another Man Cured of HIV After Stem Cell Transplant – POZ (US)

Why are key populations on the blindspot in the global HIV response? – CNS (India)

Snapshots from AIDS 2024

Join the conversation

The official theme of AIDS 2024 is Put people first! Share how you and/or your organization #PutPeopleFirst!

Connect online by following the official AIDS Conference social media channels, and help spread the word by sharing suggested social posts and graphics from our AIDS 2024 social toolkit.

#AIDS2024

Thanks to AIDS 2024 major industry sponsors

Daily Digest prepared by the International AIDS Society. Translated to Ukrainian and Russian by “VirusOFF”