A Rio plenary reported that cash transfer programmes were associated with a 39% drop in AIDS deaths, and that Black women with less education face nearly five times the AIDS death risk of wealthier white women, according to the International AIDS Society.

With a mother’s virus fully suppressed, real-world data put the risk of passing HIV through breastfeeding at under 1%, and Argentina reported no infections among 15 breastfeeding mother-and-infant pairs, though researchers stressed the numbers remain small, according to the International AIDS Society.

The Philippines has the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in the Asia-Pacific region, with up to 56% of people entering care between 2019 and 2024 already having advanced HIV disease, and about a quarter of people starting treatment in South Africa doing so with advanced disease, according to the International AIDS Society.

Fiji’s first molecular surveillance of its fast-growing HIV outbreak found three large transmission clusters, with no needle and syringe programmes in place and progress far behind the global testing-and-treatment targets (standing at 40, 22 and 3 against a goal of 95, 95, 95), according to the International AIDS Society.

Real-world rollouts of the after-sex antibiotic doxyPEP brought large, sustained falls in syphilis and chlamydia but not gonorrhoea, while the 4CMenB vaccine showed no protective effect against gonorrhoea across three trials, according to the International AIDS Society.

A Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — a major focus at the HIV conference — had reached 2,905 confirmed cases and 1,269 deaths by 22 July, a case fatality rate of 43.7%, with figures still evolving, according to the International AIDS Society.

Two new cases of long-term HIV remission following a stem-cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic resistance to HIV (CCR5-delta32) were presented, both with serious complications including a hepatitis B reactivation and incomplete engraftment with several infections, according to the International AIDS Society.

In the small, ongoing Tatelo-plus paediatric study in Botswana, all infants remained undetectable at 24 weeks on broadly neutralising antibodies, though one researcher cautioned that antibodies plus lenacapavir amount to suppression rather than a cure, according to the International AIDS Society.

The PEPFAR Pulse survey of 166 implementing partners across 46 countries, carried out after United States HIV funding was disrupted, found more than half reporting a terminated award and 1,714 service sites closed, with a 23% response rate, according to the International AIDS Society.

In Sudan, HIV testing fell by 78% among men and 71% among women, new treatment starts dropped by 66%, and the share of positive tests rose from 3.2% to 8.7%, according to the International AIDS Society.

Across two quarters of 2025, Nigeria recorded falls of 50.5% in prevention reach, 70.2% in HIV testing and 83.0% in PrEP starts, according to the International AIDS Society.

Two trials, ISLEND-1 and ISLEND-2, found a once-weekly tablet of islatravir and lenacapavir non-inferior to a standard daily pill at 48 weeks in people already virally suppressed, according to the International AIDS Society.

The LATA trial in 476 adolescents found an eight-weekly injection of cabotegravir and rilpivirine superior to a daily pill, with viral rebound in 0.9% against 6.4% and 94% finding the injection easier, according to the International AIDS Society.

VOGUE, the first head-to-head trial of a two-drug start against a three-drug start, found dolutegravir with lamivudine non-inferior to the three-drug regimen, including in people with high viral loads and low CD4 counts, according to the International AIDS Society.

The Ndovu trial was stopped early after many people with major dolutegravir resistance who stayed on the standard dose had treatment failure, supporting resistance testing and a change of regimen, according to the International AIDS Society.

CAPRISA 012C, the first HIV prevention trial to combine two long-acting antibodies, found the six-monthly injections safe but not effective in 1,023 women in Africa (incidence rate ratio 1.29), according to the International AIDS Society.

In the Mobile Men trial of 400 men in Uganda and South Africa, nine-month persistence on PrEP was low at 22% overall but higher with injectable cabotegravir than the daily pill, at 28% against 16%, according to the International AIDS Society.

Open-label data from the PURPOSE 1 and PURPOSE 2 trials of twice-yearly lenacapavir showed 95% of eligible people choosing the injection with no new infections in PURPOSE 1, and a combined incidence of 0.07 per 100 person-years in PURPOSE 2, according to the International AIDS Society.

• The US government's pre-conference session was disrupted by activists protesting PEPFAR cuts, and the same session displayed a map of Africa that mislabelled all six countries it identified — one Reuters found carried an OpenAI watermark, prompting a State Department apology. HIV i-Base / NBC News / Reuters
• The IAS presidency passed to Kenyan HIV-prevention scientist Kenneth Ngure at the AIDS 2026 closing ceremony, succeeding Brazil's Beatriz Grinsztejn. International AIDS Society
• Nearly 200,000 doses of the twice-yearly injectable PrEP lenacapavir have been given across high-burden African countries, with demand outpacing supply and a target of three million people by end of 2028. aidsmap

• Donor government HIV funding fell 25% in 2025 — a $2.1 billion drop to $6.2 billion, the steepest single-year fall on record, driven by US cuts. UNAIDS / International AIDS Society / KFF report.
• Two more men — the Kansas City and Essen patients — appear to be in HIV remission after stem-cell transplants for blood cancer, though the procedure remains too risky to be a general cure. aidsmap / AIDS 2026 / Healio.
• A once-weekly islatravir/lenacapavir tablet matched a standard daily pill at 48 weeks in two phase 3 trials and could become the first once-weekly oral HIV treatment, though it isn't yet approved. aidsmap and POZ.