The International AIDS Society (IAS) has announced today that AIDS 2026, the 26th International AIDS Conference, will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and virtually from 25 to 30 July 2026.
Between 7,000 and 10,000 people are expected to attend the event where significant research updates and successful support programs are shared.
“We are at a critical turning point in the HIV response as shifting geopolitical dynamics and funding uncertainties threaten decades of progress,” IAS President and AIDS 2026 International Co-Chair Beatriz Grinsztejn said.
“With AIDS 2026 just four years before the 2030 deadline for global targets, the HIV response hangs in the balance. An evidence-based, resilient, fully funded HIV response requires us to rethink, rebuild and rise.
“We have made significant strides, but the HIV response must urgently adapt, innovate and reinforce community-driven solutions to maintain access to prevention, treatment and care.
“As the world’s largest conference uniting people living with, affected by and working on HIV, AIDS 2026 will be pivotal in protecting the progress we have made and charting a path forward, together.”
Brazil has long been committed to a science-driven, human rights-based approach to HIV, and was the first low- or middle-income country to provide free access to highly active antiretroviral therapy to people living with HIV in the late 1990s.
It has participated in important HIV studies, including HPTN 083 and PURPOSE 2, which demonstrated high efficacy of long-acting injectables cabotegravir and lenacapavir for HIV prevention, and the Mosaico vaccine trial. It also coordinates large PrEP implementation studies, such as ImPrEP, ImPrEP-CAB LA and ImPrEP LEN.
“Brazil has made remarkable progress in its HIV response, particularly in the field of prevention,” AIDS 2026 Local Co-Chair Draurio Barreira, the Director of the Department of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Viral Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections at Brazil’s Ministry of Health, said.
“We adopted the Treat All policy in 2013 and rolled out HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in 2018, which has resulted in AIDS-related deaths falling by 18% since 2010. Our Unified Health System has cushioned the broader impact of the funding crisis, making Brazil an ideal setting to rethink the global HIV response at AIDS 2026.”
UNAIDS data show uneven progress in Latin America. The number of AIDS-related deaths has fallen by 28% since 2010 – but increased among women in several countries. HIV acquisitions increased by 9% between 2010 and 2023 – and by 20% among men who have sex with men, 42% among sex workers and 19% among trans women.
“Hosting AIDS 2026 in Latin America gives us the chance to bring attention to the most neglected groups,” Regional Co-Chair Claudia Cortes, an IAS Governing Council member and Associate Professor at the University of Chile, said.
“These include migrant and refugee populations, as well as Indigenous communities – Latin America is home to some 500 ethnic groups. We will also highlight the situation of women in a region where the epidemic predominantly affects men and where many affected women remain invisible and unacknowledged.”
AIDS 2026 will bring together leading scientists, policy makers, grassroots activists and people living with, working in and affected by HIV. To ensure broad access, the IAS will support participation through a comprehensive scholarship programme and significantly discounted registration rates for young people and delegates from lower-income countries. It will also provide free online access to all major sessions two months after the conference.
Registration for AIDS 2026 will open in November 2025. For more information about AIDS 2026, visit www.aids2026.org.
Source: Media Release
