Rio opens the 26th International AIDS Conference

Rio de Janeiro brings together the global scientific community against HIV

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosts the 26th edition of the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026), one of the world’s largest scientific gatherings on HIV/AIDS. The event brings together researchers, physicians, activists, and public health policymakers from around the world to discuss the latest advances in the response to the epidemic.

The conference addresses central themes such as the latest developments in antiretroviral treatment, prevention strategies, including pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP, and research toward a functional cure. It also discusses persistent challenges in equitable access to treatment in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, regions where significant gaps in health service coverage remain.

Brazil, a regional reference in the HIV response

As the host country, Brazil brings a relevant precedent: its public system of free antiretroviral distribution has been considered an international reference since the 1990s. The choice of Rio de Janeiro as the host city seeks precisely to highlight both the advances and the challenges of the HIV response in Latin America, a region where new infections have not shown the same downward trend observed in other parts of the world.

Among the central topics of this edition are the impact of cuts in international funding for HIV programs, a factor that concerns global health organizations due to its potential effect on the progress achieved in recent decades. Also prominent is the role of new long-acting injectable formulations for prevention, considered a promising tool to expand coverage among populations with less access to daily treatments.

The conference also devotes special attention to gender gaps and key populations — transgender people, sex workers, and men who have sex with men — in access to health services, an issue that human rights organizations consider decisive for closing the epidemiological gap in the region. With delegations from dozens of countries, AIDS 2026 stands as a key venue to define the global roadmap against HIV in the coming years.