Researchers, policymakers and activists from around the world came to Montreal this summer to share knowledge and practice with the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030
Organized by the International AIDS Society, the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022, this year), is a biannual event.
AIDS 2022 took place as a hybrid event for the first time, while hosted in Montreal’s Palais de Congrès from 29 July to 2 August 2022. For the first time, the world’s largest conference on HIV and AIDS was hosted in person, as well as virtually, to make it accessible to as many people as possible.
This year’s theme asked the world to come together to re-engage and follow the science with the goal of defining agendas and moving evidence into action.
According to the World Health Organization, HIV-AIDS continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed 40.1 million lives since 1981. In 2021, there were an estimated 38.4 million people living with HIV. That is higher than the population of Canada.
AIDS 2022 looked at the lessons learned from four decades of HIV and AIDS activism, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people living with HIV, and what we, as a global community, need to do to reach the UNAIDS goal to end AIDS by 2030.
Faculty members from the School of Population and Global Health joined colleagues from across the world at this year's conference:
Catherine Hankins, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health moderated a session on community-based participatory research aimed at presenting the added-value of community-based research in terms of sciences, transformative actions and political decisions in the field of HIV.
Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, presented his work on surveillance as a panelist at the symposium on Complexities in the measurement of new HIV acquisitions.
This symposium highlighted the methods and alternative approaches to measure HIV incidence, identify the potential sources of errors and problems with each method, and signal opportunities to improve reliability. It also explored the application of these methods for HIV surveillance and assessed the effectiveness of next-generation biomedical interventions.
Maheu-Giroux's presentation “How do we measure HIV incidence in an effective way?” discussed the evolution of HIV surveillance, ways to monitor HIV incidence trends, and the use of recency assay in routine HIV surveillance across various countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, Malawi, Mozambique and Canada. He highlighted the need to triangulate data from multiple sources to efficiently measure HIV incidence and the importance of stratification of HIV incidence estimates to end inequalities.
Joanne Liu, director of the Pandemic and Emergency Readiness Lab at the School, was also present, chairing a satellite session hosted by Global Affairs Canada, on the “Lessons learned from 40 years to fight AIDS to COVID19 and future pandemics”. Speakers reflected on early and ongoing efforts by the international community to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, discussing key successes, failures and lessons learned over the past 40 years, and sharing their perspectives on surveillance and response, governance systems, resources and financing, civil society engagement, and miscommunication.
Liu also chaired a panel on HIV and armed conflicts. Looking at how armed conflicts aggravate and accelerate the vulnerabilities of populations that are already exposed to risks, uncertainties, and instabilities. The availability and accessibility of health services, as well as harm reduction strategies, are heavily jeopardized in these precarious contexts. The event explored the policies addressing HIV service provision for refugees and people on the move due to armed conflicts. And looked at human rights- and evidence-based responses to address the needs of people living and affected by HIV who are impacted by armed conflicts.
Madhukar Pai, professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, spoke at a session on Anti-racism and decolonizing the AIDS response: Moving from rhetoric to reformation, where he spoke about racism as pathology. Pai also shared his thoughts on the topic in an opinion piece posted on Forbes addressing the issue of visas being easier to obtain by people traveling to AIDS 2022, from European countries, stating:
“There is a big risk that people in the global South will be left behind, or left trying to join hybrid events via unreliable internet connections.”
Pai’s session looked at diversity, equity and inclusion of people of colour and minority groups in academia, development and public health sectors, specifically at the leadership and policy-making levels; in strategies for research on HIV and AIDS, including in collection and intersectional analyses of disaggregated data on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability and HIV status. As well as resourced action (programs) for ending inequalities related to intersecting identities of race, ethnicity, geography, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and HIV status.
Nitika Pant Pai, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Epidemiology, principal investigator at the Research Institute of the MUHC (McGill University Health Centre) and an associate member in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, presented as a panelist at the symposia session” Re-engage and follow the science;” Learning from pandemics: From COVID-19 and HIV to future pandemics. The session looked at the various facets of leadership in the response to COVID-19 and HIV and how we can learn from this for future pandemics to ensure strong, collaborative and fact-based leadership.
Giada Sebastiani, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine and a clinician scientist at the Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre, and an associate member in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health presented her research on the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in people with HIV.
Salome Kuchukhidze, PROGRAM, was a panelist on a session “Is violence a breaking point for HIV?” highlighting the impact of violence on HIV outcomes for women, adolescents, cisgender gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men across sub-Saharan Africa and the US. The panelists did not shrink back from unveiling the truth in statistics and Kuchukhidze further emphasized the importance of sensitive, confidential, and women-centric interventions. Read the full rapporteur summary and Kuchukhidze’s abstract.
Students we are also at the conference presenting their research as part of an e-poster presentation.
Carla Doyle, a student working with Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, presented her work on Reaching zero new HIV infections among key populations in Québec: monitoring elimination targets using mathematical modeling of routine surveillance data. Read the abstract.
Dana Kablawi, a student working with Giada Sebastiani, presented her work on the Progression of hepatic steatosis in people with HIV on integrase inhibitors. Read the abstract.
Angela Karellis, a student working with Nikita Pant Pai, presented two abstracts:
Do Digital Innovations Improve Sexual and Reproductive Health Among Youth? Results from a Systematic Review. Read the abstract.
Evaluation of a Rapid Multiplex Assay Based Digital Screening Strategy in Canada: What’s the Verdict? Read the abstract.
Mohamed Shengir, a student working with Giada Sebastiani, presented his work on Changes innonalcoholicfatty liverdiseasespectrum and metabolic markers in people with HIV after switching to a raltegravir-based regimen. Read the abstract.
James Stannah, a student working with Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, presented his work on Improving our understanding of how structural determinants impact HIV epidemics: a scoping review of dynamic models to guide future research. Read the abstract.
Lily Yang, a student working with Mathieu Maheu-Giroux, presented her work on Cervical cancer screening among women living with HIV: a systematic analysis of population-based surveys in sub-Saharan Africa.
Stannah and Yang were awarded IAS/Quebec AIDS Research Network Young Investigator Prize for their multidisciplinary approach to conducting high-quality research in the field of HIV and AIDS.