2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria
Right Here, Right Now
July 18-23
This is the 18th year that there has been a gathering of scientists, doctors, activists, people living with HIV and researchers coming together to talk about not only new research that has come out, but also discuss on a global level, what needs to be done to stop the spread of HIV and to provide access to treatment to those living with HIV.
This year the International AIDS Conference is being held in Vienna, which was chosen because of the role “Vienna has played in bridging Eastern and Western Europe, and {it} will allow for an examination of the epidemic’s impact in Eastern Europe.”
Next year, the International AIDS Conference will be held in Washington D.C. Start planning now to be a part of the world’s largest HIV/AIDS Conference.
Here’s some articles/issues that have come up at this year’s conference that I want to share.
Tenofovir Vaginal Microbicide Gel in South African Woman Results
This is probably the biggest news that has come out of the entire conference so far. It has been many years that scientists and researchers have pushed forth to try and find a microbicide gel that could be used to stop the spread of HIV. This has been very important, as it presents a way for women and men to protect themselves from HIV infection in countries where sexual intercourse is not always consensual.
The results were good, in that there is a 39% success rate for blocking HIV infection which is the best results that a microbicide has ever gotten. This has cause a great amount of excitement and the knowledge that research in microbicides will increase.
Bill Gates and Bill Clinton call for cost effective strategies in the fight against HIV/AIDS
From the Article:
In speeches Monday, at the XVIII International AIDS Conference here, the founder of Microsoft Corp. and the former U.S. president said the current economic crisis putting pressure on donations doesn't change the need to reach more patients with treatment and prevention.
But they said finding efficiencies in delivering treatment and prevention programs would help get services to more patients even if funding remains flat. "Right now, there isn't enough money to simply treat our way out of this epidemic," Mr. Gates told conference attendees. "If we keep spending our resources in exactly the same way we do today, we will fall further behind in our ability to treat everyone."
Mr. Gates and Mr. Clinton are now major global health philanthropists who head foundations that fund a variety of research, treatment and prevention programs in HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
France ACT UP takes over briefly a session of HIV ambassadors to talk about France’s inability to provide more money for HIV treatment and also the lack of effort of the ambassadors to do anything.
At 16 minutes in, ACT UP France among other AIDS Activists take over the session for a few minutes to try and bring up topics that are not being discussed. The ambassadors for HIV within this group are put on the spot when activists demand why there is inaction among them to push government bodies to do more for HIV treatment and prevention. I have to say that the rest of the session is quite boring and really doesn’t do anything to progress discussion on what is being done when it comes to advocacy of HIV. There is discussion of organizations that do HIV research, there’s half hearted talks around whether diplomacy is still active around HIV/AIDS.
Here is the speech that one of the spokespersons gave:
Today activists from organizations of people living with HIV including ACT UP Paris are interrupting this symposium because Patrice Debre the French AIDS ambassador of AIDS in this position for 40 months now. In that time, more than two million people died of AIDS because they did not have access to medicine.
The activists demand today that the French AIDS ambassador answer to the following question. How will it be possible to enroll new people in treatment with no additional money and why fight here against policies to lower the price of drugs?
2010 was supposed to be the year of the universal access to treatment against HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria.
2010 will be the year of G8 countries broken promises. 2010 is the year of funding group initiative for the global fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
To this date, French has not given any single sign showing that it would improve significantly its contribution to the global fund. Without an increase of at least 40-percent of its contributions, it is not possible to apply new WHO guidelines to begin treatment earlier and to ensure access to second line and third line drugs for all who need it.
2010 is the year of the war against generics.
Indeed 2010 is the year of ACT UP and fighting toward agreements in FTAs, free trade agreements, between India and European Union. These agreements if signed will hinder dramatically the prediction and the expectations of cheap, generic drugs.
So we still ask today for France to triple its contribution to global funds to fight AIDS, TB and malaria and to renounce with the UN to free trade agreements with India, to US, France and Europe to jointly ACT UP. Thank you very much.
