AIDS 2026: Free access to opening ceremony and rapporteur summaries

For the first time since COVID, the International AIDS Society (IAS) posted the opening ceremony and closing sessions as open-access live webcasts and YouTube videos for everyone to be able to watch. [1, 2]

This is especially important for anyone who was unable to register as a delegate or who was in a different time-zone.

This decision reflects the IAS commitment to democratise science and support community engagement. By including the critical rapporteur summaries – also on YouTube – that cover the most important research presented in each conference track – this should also reach many doctors and researchers who were not able to attend.

The rapporteur summaries enable everyone to see the key results from tracks that they wouldn’t normally be able to follow.

As outgoing IAS President and conference co-chair Beatriz Grinsztejn made clear when welcoming delegates to her home city of Rio de Janeiro, AIDS 2026 was a highly political event: “We are here because the world needs us to be, to Rethink, Rebuild and Rise.”

And in bringing the meeting to Latin America and the Caribbean, where rates of new HIV infections continue to rise, . “Bringing the conference to Brazil is a statement … that also invests in the Global South” – supporting Brazil’s commitment to a public health response to HIV.

“We gather in the shadow of decisions made by a few and felt by too many in communities and clinics across the planet”.

Other speakers in the opening ceremony on how to rebuild following the funding crisis included Winnie Byanyima, head of UNAIDS, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of WHO, Alexandre Padilha, Brazil’s Minister of Health, and there was a moving call to action from Alexus d’Marco from the United Caribbean Trans Network (UCTrans).

The diverse programme covered all aspects of HIV research including community activism. More than 7500 delegates attended in person or online and almost 3000 research abstracts were presented.

IAS also continued to support scholarships – this year for over 700 young investigators and community educators. Of these, 80% were from low- or middle-income countries and almost 70% were individuals from key populations most affected by HIV, and a third were people living with HIV. This generates a unique chance to interact with people with very different backgrounds and experience, reflected in the programme.

Links to most webcasts of oral presentations are still restricted to registered delegates.

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It will also hopefully raise the profile of AIDS 2026 and increase engagement from diverse communities.