Rwanda will host 2025 Conference on HIV Science
The International AIDS Society (IAS), has announced the host country for its 2025 Conference on HIV Science. In a press release, copied to Ghana Business News the IAS says the 13th edition of the conference, the largest scientific conference on HIV will be held in Kigali, Rwanda.
The dates are set from July 14 to 17, 2025, it said, adding that pre-meetings will rake place on July 13.
One of the main reasons for choosing Rwanda, the organisers say, is because most Africans can travel to the country visa-free.
The IAS Conference on HIV Science is the world’s most influential meeting on HIV research and its applications, the organisers say.
According to the release, the IAS Executive Board, with recommendations from its representative Conference Committee, selected Kigali as the host city for IAS 2025 after evaluating factors that included Rwanda’s proven track record as a hub for international meetings and conferences, its world-class convention centre and the fact that African nationals from across the continent can enter Rwanda without a visa.
Commenting, the IAS President-Elect and IAS 2025 International Chair Beatriz Grinsztejn said: “IAS 2025 will serve as a critical reflection point to collectively take stock of how and in what ways the advances in HIV science can be expanded on and accelerated to end AIDS as a public health threat.
“With only five years left to meet the 2030 targets, it is critical that the global HIV science agenda makes even deeper inroads in support of a more equitable HIV response. This conference provides a powerful platform for researchers, advocates, communities and policy makers to move that response forward together,” she added.
“Hosting the IAS Conference on HIV Science allows us to showcase Rwanda’s evidence-based approach to ending AIDS,” IAS 2025 Local Chair Jeanine Umutesi Condo said. “Rwanda is one of the few countries that have attained the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets – seven years ahead of target – calling for 95% of all people living with HIV to know their HIV status, 95% of all people with diagnosed HIV to receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 95% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy to be virally suppressed by 2030. We are proud to have this opportunity to share this extraordinary success story with the world.”
While at least 16 other African countries are close to achieving the 95-95-95 targets, central, eastern, southern and western Africa remains home to 65% of all people living with HIV.
“Three decades after the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, Rwanda has transformed from one of the poorest countries in the world to a leader in global health and development,” Rwandan Minister of Health Sabin Nsanzimana said.
“To end HIV as a public health threat, we need to invest in effective prevention, including addressing inequities that continue to put women at greater risk than men of acquiring HIV. Our history has taught us the critical importance of nimble and tailored approaches,” Nsanzimana added.
The IAS says it will provide hundreds of scholarships and offer significantly discounted registration rates for young people and those from lower-income countries, as well as provide free online access to all major conference sessions two months after the conference, to further broaden access to the conference.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi