XVII International AIDS Conference: “Universal Action NOW”

More than 22,000 researchers, advocates, and public health and civil society leaders assembled in Mexico City on earlier this week for the start of AIDS 2008-the XVII International AIDS Conference. The conference is held semi-annually by the International AIDS Society (IAS), the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals, and this is the first to be held in a Latin American country. Among the top issues to be discussed during this week-long event are human rights violations, gender inequality and the importance of strengthening overall health systems in poor countries. Health News will be following the conference and will bring you daily highlights and updates on announcements as well as any breaking news.

The conference opened with welcoming remarks by the AIDS 2008 Co-Chair Dr. Pedro Cahn, President of the IAS. "AIDS 2008 is taking place at a unique moment in the epidemic, when there is widespread consensus on the urgency of ensuring universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010," he said. "What we now need is action on the part of all stakeholders. As we gather in Mexico, each of us must ask ourselves: What can I do to end AIDS? In 2008, there are no longer bystanders in this global struggle," he added.

Keren Dunaway-Gonzalez, a 13-year-old Honduran girl with HIV, also spoke during the opening ceremony. "Many of us want to be doctors or teachers. I want to be a singer. But these dreams will only be possible when we have medicines, when we're accepted in schools, and when we can grow up in an atmosphere free from violence, stigma and discrimination," she said.

IAS also announced the nine winners of three prestigious scientific awards, to be presented at sessions throughout the conference. These awards recognize young scientists involved in HIV/AIDS research around the world. "These awards not only recognize significant scientific accomplishments, but they also draw the world's attention to some of the most promising researchers working in HIV/AIDS in the world," said Dr. Cahn. "The quality of work presented by the 2008 awardees is remarkable." Among the topics of their research are: the Prevalence of Resistance-Associated-Mutations in HIV-infected Mexican Children after multiple ARV failure; Rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and HIV: promoting women's rights through legislation and "Women's bodies are shops"-Beliefs about transactional sex and implications for understanding gender power and HIV prevention in Tanzania. The newest award, presented for the first time during AIDS 2006, is the IAS/ICRW Young Investigator Prize: Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS, which highlights the challenges faced by women and girls by encouraging young women investigators from resource-limited settings to pursue HIV/AIDS research.

According to the Wall Street Journal, approximately 25 million people have died of AIDS-related conditions since 1981, and there are currently about 33 million HIV-positive people worldwide. In 2005, world leaders acting through the United Nations committed to the goal of providing universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support to all those in need by 2010. "The end of AIDS is nowhere in sight," said Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS. "Every day almost three times as many people become newly infected with HIV as those who start taking antiretroviral therapy."  

A major increase in funding for HIV/AIDS treatment combined with reduced prices for antiretroviral drugs have enabled almost 3 million HIV-positive people in developing countries to receive the drugs. "There has been a spectacular advance, but we are still very short of the mark," said Jean-Francois Delfraissy, head of France's National Agency for AIDS Research. "One of the tasks of the conference is to address the fact that there are three million people who now get the drugs, but another nine million who do not," he added.