CROI 2025 Promises Breaking Results, Conversations Around HIV, COVID-19

The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) 2025, held from March 9 to March 12, 2025, in San Francisco, will feature various sessions and abstract presentations covering viral infections, treatment for chronic viral infections, and potential cures. This includes coverage on HIV, COVID-19, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and hepatitis C, among others.^1,2

The conference officially begins on March 9, with the opening session held at night with hosts Diane V. Havlir, MD, the conference chair, from the University of California San Francisco; Nicolas Chomont, from Université de Montréal; and Wafaa M. El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, from Columbia University, leading the session. The N’Galy-Mann Lecture, the Martin Delaney Presenation, and the Bernard Fields Lecture will open the conference along with a special presentation from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus before the main conference sessions begin on Monday.

The Monday plenary session will be led by Ole S. Søgaard, PhD, from Aarhus University, and Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, from Duke Global Health Institute, who will focus on a research perspective on a cure for HIV and the global perspective on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

CROI, which takes place in San Francisco, will feature sessions on various viral conditions | Image credit: JFL Photography - stock.adobe.com

Themed discussions will also be included each day at CROI, with Monday’s focuses including controlling HIV, heart failure, developments in diagnosis and therapy, and meeting treatment needs of transgender women. Mateo Prochazka, MS, from the World Health Organization, will be leading a session on HIV self-testing that will include discussions on the effect of distribution programs on testing, diagnosis, and treatment, and how a home-based intervention for couples affected HIV testing and counseling.

Tuesday will feature a heavier focus on viruses and vaccines outside of HIV. Oral abstract sessions will run concurrently and feature topics such as “What Do Viruses Do, and How Do They Do It?” and another that focuses on antivirals for HIV, Mpox, and COVID-19, specifically with new drug strategies and resistance. “New Frontiers in HIV Prevention” will focus on universal screening for syphilis, doxycycline postexposure prophylaxis (doxyPEP) eligibility and efficacy, and the effect of improved human papillomavirus vaccination in people living with HIV.

A session on the persistence and evolution of COVID-19 will be led by Alex Sigal, PhD, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Speakers will focus on intrahost evolution, evolving immune evasion, and prevalence and spread of variants of COVID-19 in testing. Machine learning will also take a spotlight in a session led by Julia Marcus, PhD, MPH, from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. The speakers will focus on using machine learning to predict those who will fall out of HIV care and forecasting viral load suppression in 21 countries in Africa.

Wednesday will feature late-breaking research focused on antiviral therapies of all kinds, including phase III results on ensitrelvir to prevent COVID-19 in households, efficacy and safety of VH3810109 in adults who are virologically suppressed, and phase III results of switching to doravirine/islatravir from either oral antiretroviral therapy or from bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide.

Wednesday will also feature oral abstract sessions focused on viral neuropathogenesis in HIV and COVID-19, cardiometabolic complications of HIV, gaps and solutions in the response to HIV, and expanding prevention for HIV.

Themed discussions on the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of COVID-19 will be led by Robert T. Schooley, MD, from the University of California San Diego, which will include discussions on slower viral clearance and viral rebound in acute COVID-19 and preserved adrenal function in people with long COVID. Another themed discussion will focus on implementation of doxyPEP, led by Jennifer Balkus, PhD, MPH, from Public Health Seattle and King County. This will touch on doxyPEP in high-risk men who have sex with men (MSM), the need for doxyPEP, and the effect of doxyPEP on the microbiome of MSM and transgender women on preexposure prophylaxis.

CROI 2025 promises to be filled with novel research on HIV, COVID-19, and STIs among other chronic conditions brought on by viruses. The 4-day conference will educate attendees on the newest treatments and means of prevention for viral conditions over the course of the educational sessions.

Reference

1. Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections Program and Information Guide. CROI. Updated February 27, 2025. Accessed March 5, 2025. https://www.croiconference.org/croi-2025-attendees-resources/#1704917615261-cc763cf1-5575
2. CROI 2025 preliminary program. CROI. Updated February 28, 2025. Accessed March 5, 2025. https://www.croiconference.org/preliminary-agenda/