The 17th International Workshop on Pediatrics & HIV will take place in a hybrid format from 11-12 July 2025 in Kigali, Rwanda.
Although we have seen a dramatic increase in antiretroviral treatment (ART) use worldwide, as well as efforts to prevent vertical transmission of HIV over the past decade, there were 150,000 new pediatric infections in 2021 and an estimated 1.68 million children under 15 years of age are living with HIV. Children are far less likely than adults to be diagnosed, to start treatment, and to achieve sustained viral suppression. Currently, only 54% are receiving ART, and pediatric HIV treatment, particularly in infants and children, remains complex and challenging, with the continued use of suboptimal ART formulations and regimens.
In addition, adolescents are one of the fastest growing populations infected with HIV. In 2021, there will be an estimated 410,000 new HIV infections among young people aged 15 to 24, representing 27% of all new HIV infections globally. HIV infections among adolescents and young women are 65% higher than among adolescents and young men of the same age, with 4,900 new infections occurring each week among young women. HIV remains a leading cause of death among adolescents living in Africa and one of the top 10 causes of death among adolescents worldwide. HIV testing uptake among adolescents remains low. Programs continue to struggle to reach and retain adolescents in care, and adherence to treatment presents particular challenges, particularly among those with perinatal infection who age into adolescence and early childhood.
As research to improve HIV diagnosis and care for children continues, new critical scientific questions are also emerging. In settings with mature ART programs, an increasing proportion of new pediatric infections is attributed to women who acquired HIV infection during pregnancy and breastfeeding, periods when the mother’s risk of acquiring HIV is substantially increased. However, the use of newer, highly effective, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV acquisition has been limited in pregnant and lactating women due to a lack of available data on the pharmacokinetics and safety of these drugs these periods. and their limited availability in the low-resource settings where most women with HIV reside. The introduction of new long-acting agents for treatment and prevention offers important opportunities to identify new approaches and answer next-generation questions about implementation, adoption, and persistence among women and pregnant women. and teenagers in tin. The use of newer antiretroviral regimens, such as dolutegravir, by women living with HIV may affect the sensitivity of rapid nucleic acid diagnostic tests, complicating the diagnosis of children. Furthermore, with more than 1.3 million pregnant women worldwide receiving antiretroviral therapy, a new set of questions is emerging about the long-term impact of in utero and postnatal drug exposure on HIV-exposed but uninfected children. Currently, the global population of uninfected children and adolescents exposed to HIV is estimated to be 14.8 million, with more than 8 million exposed to ARVs in utero. The importance of monitoring the safety of new ARVs during pregnancy is highlighted by the initial signal of an association between neural tube defects and exposure to dolutegravir during the periconceptional period, which was found to be spurious after a sufficient number of exposures were documented.
Innovations in early childhood diagnosis, such as point-of-care testing, have facilitated the early identification of HIV infection during infancy, providing exciting new opportunities to study acute infection and very early treatment in newborns, and promising strategies for remission.
However, despite the critical importance of these topics, research on HIV infection in children, adolescents, and mothers is often overlooked at mainstream HIV scientific conferences. That is why, in collaboration with leading experts in the field, we are continuing our international workshop with a strong focus on the prevention and treatment of pediatric HIV.
The overall objective of the International Workshop on Pediatrics and HIV is to stimulate research that will advance prevention and treatment strategies for infants, children and adolescents. The workshop aims to provide a platform for the presentation and discussion of the latest developments in the field, to bring together experts involved in pediatric and perinatal HIV and to promote diversity and the next generation of research in the field. The workshop has been very effective in attracting high-level research presentations on pediatric and maternal HIV; of the 248 oral abstracts presented during previous workshops in 2013-2023, 148 (60%) have resulted in scientific publications.
For more information and to register: https://academicmedicaleducation.com/meeting/17th-international-workshop-pediatrics-hiv-2025.
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