Attended by scientists, policymakers and grassroots workers, the biennial conference is the biggest single get-together on the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The 20th conference in Melbourne drew around 20,000 people, of whom 13,600 were delegates and the rest were members of the public who attended an outreach event called the Global Village, the International AIDS Society (IAS) said.
The 2016 conference will return to a venue that saw "a watershed" in the history of AIDS, said Chris Beyrer, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland, who will co-chair the event.
The 2000 conference was the first to be held in Africa. It took place at a time when each year, hundreds of thousands of Africans were dying for lack of HIV drugs that were available in rich countries but beyond the financial reach of poor ones.
By Ruchi Singh
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