From July 21 through 24, 2019, more than 6,000 researchers, implementers, policymakers, advocates, and community leaders will gather in Mexico City for the 10th International AIDS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2019). PATH experts will share how our programs have introduced integrated HIV and viral hepatitis service delivery across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia; scaled HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among key populations; and accelerated our differentiated partner notification approach to actively reach, test, and link HIV-positive individuals to critical HIV services.
We hope that you can join PATH at one of our satellite sessions, stop by the poster exhibition to chat with our experts, and follow us throughout IAS 2019 at www.path.org, and on Twitter (@PATHtweets and #IAS2019), Facebook (facebook.com/PATHglobalhealth), and Instagram (instagram.com/pathglobalhealth).
Please find a schedule of our events below.
Sunday, July 21:
Satellite session
Sticky linkage: Latest evidence and new strategies
8:00–10:00
Palacia de Iturbude 1 y 2
What is needed to make linkage effective? How can we ensure our linkage approaches drive improved antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and retention? How can we adapt these approaches for re-engagement of people who have been on treatment in the past but have fallen out of care? This session will address these questions through a differentiated service delivery lens. It will explore the term “sticky linkage” and its usefulness, the importance of global and country guidance on linkage, and how to ensure durable linkage within the context of rapid ART initiation, highlighting client-centered approaches. PATH’s Kimberly Green will be part of a panel discussion on who we need to prioritize for re-engagement tracing.
Satellite session
PrEP and STIs: Opportunities and Challenges
12:30–14:30
Palacio de Valparaiso 1
As pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services expand, there has been growing need for sexually transmitted infection (STI) services and recognition that PrEP can serve as a gateway to sexual health services for key populations as well as serodiscordant couples and vulnerable young people. Public health stakeholders have raised concerns over the role of PrEP, while preventing HIV, in facilitating the risk for STIs. It is essential therefore to critically appraise STI data, in terms of causality, particularly incidence and re-infection rates, emerging from PrEP implementation. Kimberly Green will share our country experience scaling up PrEP and STI services in Vietnam.
Monday, July 22
Poster exhibition
Improved HIV treatment retention among patients enrolled in a differentiated care model at Kenya General Reference Hospital in Haut Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
12:30–14:30; Sala B—Poster exhibition area
It’s fast and convenient: HIVST is highly acceptable to people who inject drugs and their intimate partners in rural and urban settings in Vietnam
12:30–14:30; Sala B—Poster exhibition area
Tuesday, July 23
Satellite session
The Power of Partners! Positively engaging networks of people with HIV in testing, treatment, and prevention
18:30–20:30
Casa del Diezmo 1 y 2
HIV partner notification services (PNS) are an effective means of newly diagnosing people with HIV, linking people to HIV care, and identifying people in need of HIV prevention services, including pre-exposure prophylaxis. This satellite, co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, PATH, and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, will disseminate key lessons learned from programs implementing HIV PNS globally, including high-impact articles from a JIAS supplement that will be launched at IAS 2019, and a moderated panel providing community and operational perspectives. PATH’s Kimberly Green will open this session with a 101 on PNS, and Bao Vu Ngoc will present on how PATH, through the US Agency for International Development–supported Healthy Markets project, is using community-led enhanced PNS to reach key populations in Vietnam.
Poster exhibition
Acceptability and willingness to pay for Hepatitis C virus services in Vietnam
12:30–14:30; Sala B—Poster exhibition area
Key population-delivered oral PrEP: Preliminary enrollment and adherence findings and factors associated with early retention among MSM in Vietnam
12:30–14:30; Sala B—Poster exhibition area
Wednesday, July 24
Symposium
PrEP/ART Adherence Monitoring
12:30–14:00
AVAC and PATH are convening a satellite symposium to discuss applications of adherence monitoring and its role in ending the HIV epidemic. The goal of the symposium is to review the current state of adherence monitoring technologies; discuss the clinical utility and applications of adherence monitoring technologies; and develop the optimal path forward to scale up these technologies for global impact.
Poster exhibition
Multilevel approach in optimizing assisted Partner Notification Services (aPNS): a case study at Awendo Sub County Hospital, Western Kenya
12:30–14:30; Sala B—Poster exhibition area
Piloting early detection of HIV, tuberculosis, and Hepatitis C (HCV) in probation settings in Ukraine
12:30–14:30; Sala B—Poster exhibition area
Challenges in access and quality of care for HCV in Ukrainian women’s prisons
12:30–14:30; Sala B—Poster exhibition area
Low PrEP uptake but good retention among transgender women: preliminary results from real-world PrEP rollout in Vietnam
12:30–14:30; Sala B—Poster exhibition area
More information:
About the 10th International AIDS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2019)
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 research that move science into policy and practice. Through its open and inclusive program development, the meeting sets the gold standard for HIV research, featuring highly diverse and cutting-edge studies. The next International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020) will be held in San Francisco and Oakland July 6 through 10, 2020.
About PATH
PATH is a global organization that works to accelerate health equity by bringing together public institutions, businesses, social enterprises, and investors to solve the world’s most pressing health challenges. With expertise in science, health, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales solutions—including vaccines, drugs, devices, diagnostics, and innovative approaches to strengthening health systems worldwide. Learn more at http://www.path.org/.