Infectious Disease Frontier

The 8th Asia-Pacific AIDS and Co-infection Conference (APACC 2023) was held in Singapore from June 8 to 10, 2023. During this conference, an oral presentation (Abstract #9) conducted by Dr. Linghua Li's team from the Eighth Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, China, attracted significant attention. Dr. Li 's team, based on the latest findings from a large cohort study, revealed that the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) clearance rate in HIV/HBV co-infected individuals who received long-term combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) could reach 8.1%. Furthermore, the research results unveiled that the main influencing factors for HBsAg clearance in HIV/HBV co-infected individuals included low baseline HBsAg levels, HBV genotype B, and a more than two-fold increase in ALT within six months of treatment.

In 2021, the United Nations set forth the goal of "ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030". To achieve this, not only must countries strengthen the diagnosis and treatment of HIV infections, but they also need to prioritize prevention to minimize the emergence of new infections. Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) long-acting regimens have become a recent focal point in HIV prevention. At the recently held 12th International AIDS Society HIV Science Conference (IAS 2023), there were several keynote lectures on the topic of long-acting PrEP. Infectious Disease Frontier had the privilege to interview Dr. Deborah Donnell from the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center at the University of Washington, who shared her insights on the challenges faced in HIV prevention and the characteristics of the new long-acting PrEP regimen.

In the recent 12th International AIDS Society (IAS) HIV Science Conference (IAS 2023), a research study from South Africa found that, despite seldom adhering to antiretroviral therapy (ART), 5 male children who were born with HIV still maintained undetectable viral loads. Researchers believe that due to innate immunological gender differences, boys might have a better chance of achieving sustained virological remission than girls. In early case reports of children initiating combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), it was hypothesized that some children treated at an extremely early age could achieve viral control without requiring further interventions. To verify this hypothesis and identify potential controlling mechanisms, researchers conducted a longitudinal study in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, monitoring 281 mother-child pairs with in utero HIV infections post-delivery.

The 12th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2023) began on July 23, 2023, in Brisbane, Australia. At the conference, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced important updates to the HIV guidelines, emphasizing the importance of "HIV viral suppression for improved individual health and reduced transmission." On the eve of the conference, The Lancet published a systematic review showing that the risk of HIV transmission with low-level viral load is almost zero.

On July 23, 2023, the 12th International AIDS Society (IAS) HIV Science Conference, referred to as IAS 2023, officially began in Brisbane, Australia. As one of the largest open academic conferences in the global HIV and AIDS field, the event attracted participation from experts, medical professionals, community groups, and medical enterprises worldwide. The conference emphasized the importance of science as the foundation of policy and practice, highlighting the close integration of science, policy, and activism to promote significant advancements in the HIV and AIDS sector. The theme of the conference is "End Inequalities. End AIDS. End Pandemics.", reflecting IAS's ultimate vision. The goal is to rally health experts globally towards the shared ambition of eradicating AIDS by 2030.