The International AIDS Society (IAS) has announced a selection of 10 featured speakers for the 12^th IAS major conference on HIV Science. The conference is slated to take place in Brisbane, Australia from July 23-26, 2023.

"We are excited to announce leading global experts who will discuss the latest in cutting-edge HIV research and its application during the IAS 2023, the 12th IAS Conference on HIV Science," IAS management says.

Dr Cissy Kityo Mutuluza has sailed through as Uganda’s only featured speaker. A physician, epidemiologist and medical researcher, Kityo is the executive director of the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC).

What to expect

Three of the featured speakers come from Australia. Others are from Indonesia, South Africa, Argentina, US and France and will discuss topics, such as the prospect of HIV elimination through prevention programs, new antiretroviral and HIV treatment strategies, Doxycycline and vaccination for prevention of STIs.

Other topics to focus on, include empowering First Nations communities to combat BBVs and STIs, strategies for using antibodies for HIV cure, simplified regimens and point-of-care testing for children and adolescents to end the AIDS pandemic, new approaches to measuring the reservoir and pregnancy and breastfeeding in the U=U era.

The IAS Conference on HIV Science is the world's most influential meeting on HIV research and its applications. This biennial conference presents the critical advances in basic, clinical and operational HIV research that move science into policy and practice.

Through its open and inclusive programme, the meeting sets the gold standard of HIV Science, featuring highly diverse and cutting-edge research. Being held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, the IAS 2023 will shine a spotlight on the world's advances in HIV research.

What Kityo will focus on

Kityo is leading the first Long-Acting Injectable Anti-Retroviral Therapy (LAART) in adolescents in Africa, whose current status and future prospects she will adequately discuss during the IAS conference.

She believes that LAART will overcome barriers to long-term adherence and improve the survival of adolescents and young people living with HIV (AYLHIV), since the long-acting regimen will enable some adolescents to take their HIV treatment just six times a year.

Data shows that approximately 50% of HIV-infected adolescents fail to achieve complete viral suppression, largely due to nonadherence to their antiretroviral drug regimens. Numerous personal, financial, and societal barriers contribute to nonadherence, leading to the development of HIV drug resistance.

Long-acting antiretroviral drugs hold the promise of improved adherence because they remove the need for swallowing one or more pills daily, yet adverse effects are few and non-severe, according to research.

Cabotegravir (an integrase strand transfer inhibitor) and rilpivirine (a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor) can now be intramuscularly co-administered to HIV-infected adolescents every 4-8 weeks if they are virologically suppressed and without resistance mutations to cabotegravir or rilpivirine.

Who is Cissy Kityo?

Kityo has a master’s from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and is among the pioneers of scientists who scaled up Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa since 1992. 

As a member of the AIDS Task Force in Uganda and previously a chairperson for the AIDS Clinical Care subcommittee, she was involved in planning and writing the first strategic plan for a national programme to increase access to care and ARVs and the national ARV policy.

Kityo has worked on more than 100 trials of the treatment of HIV and related conditions and has been closely involved in studies of the prevention of HIV and preparation for vaccines, which has informed policy and practice in low-and middle-income countries.

She has over 25 years of experience in conducting and coordinating AIDS research and care for people living with HIV. She has been the principal investigator, Co-PI or investigator for operational, clinical and epidemiological trials of HIV treatment and associated infections including TB, as well as intervention studies aimed at preventing HIV transmission and preparation for HIV vaccines.

She is an executive member of various scientific committees in HIV research, prevention and treatment. Her research interests are in clinical trials, operational research, ART implementation studies, and the evolution of HIV drug resistance and HIV Reservoirs in developing countries for the HIV Cure Agenda.