IAS PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, 25 May 2021 (Geneva, Switzerland): IAS – the International AIDS Society – announced today that AIDS 2022 – the 24th International AIDS Conference – will take place in Montreal, Canada, and virtually from 29 July to 2 August 2022 with pre-conference meetings set to begin on 27 July 2022.
“We know that there is still a long way to go in the fight against HIV and AIDS,” said the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Canada’s Minister of Health. “In 2022, Canada will proudly host AIDS 2022 so that we can further our commitments to ending the HIV and AIDS global epidemic. We remain committed to our 95-95-95 targets, moving towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and to reducing stigma and discrimination. By bringing together domestic and international partners, we can redouble our collective efforts to improve the health of all our citizens and finish the fight against HIV and AIDS.”
AIDS 2022, the world’s largest conference on HIV and AIDS, will convene leading scientists, policy makers and grassroots activists.
“In the face of COVID-19, the global HIV community banded together to apply lessons learned from decades of pandemic response. It is now critical to get the HIV response back on track,” IAS President and AIDS 2022 International Co-Chair Adeeba Kamarulzaman said. “AIDS 2022 will be a pivotal moment to once more galvanize the scientific, policy and activist communities to push the response forward. We owe it to the hundreds of thousands of people we still lose to AIDS-related illnesses every year.”
Advances in COVID-19 science, particularly the rapid development of viable vaccines, have reinvigorated discussions around HIV prevention and treatment.
“Following COVID-19 vaccine discovery, we are closer than ever before to an effective HIV vaccine and even on a path towards a cure,” AIDS 2022 Local Co-Chair Jean-Pierre Routy said. “Breakthroughs in testing and treatment have improved the global response. Communities most affected by HIV continue to push for greater inclusion and accountability. Montreal welcomes our colleagues and allies from all over the world at a truly exciting time for HIV research, policy and programmes.”
To ensure equitable access for people from low- and middle-income countries, the IAS will support in-person attendance and virtual participation through an ambitious scholarship programme. This will include the provision of internet data and devices to help bridge the digital divide for people in resource-limited settings.
Canada previously hosted the 1989 International AIDS Conference in Montreal, remembered as the moment when advocacy first took centre stage; the 1996 International AIDS Conference in Vancouver, which first reported the efficacy of triple combination antiretroviral therapy; and the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto, which focused on accountability. Vancouver also hosted the IAS-convened 2015 Conference on HIV Science.
Tourisme Montréal, the city’s tourism bureau, will serve as an official conference partner for AIDS 2022.
Registration will open in November 2021. For more information about AIDS 2022, visit www.aids2022.org.
