AIDS 2014: Confronting Tragedy and Progress, 20th International AIDS Conference Brought Approaches, Community Together Source: Science Speaks: HIV & TB News By: Christine Lubinski Date: 11 August 2014 Unity” was the word that incoming International AIDS Society President Chris Beyrer used to characterize AIDS 2014 in Melbourne, Australia. The word, he said, at a panel discussion last week, described the response to the loss of six HIV movement leaders, who, en route to the conference died in the attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. It also described a growing consensus on the path forward to control the HIV pandemic, he said. The need for more effective targeting of resources and to the prevention and care needs of key populations—those at highest risk and least served in many places — was a central element of that consensus. Stephen Morrison, senior vice-president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a panelist at the event, echoed what he called the “convergence of opinions” on next steps and also noted the maturity and continuity of leadership in the global AIDS response reflected by U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Deborah Birx, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria leader Mark Dybul, World Health Organization HIV lead Gottfried Hirnschall, and UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe. Ambassador Deborah Birx repeated her commitments to ensure that PEPFAR does better in linking HIV/TB co-infected patients to both TB treatment and antiretroviral therapy and to scale-up treatment for children. She also remarked on sessions about the development of long-acting AIDS2014postantitretrovirals as greatly anticipated new tools for both treatment and prevention, with a special mention of the young women of southern Africa whose persistent high infection rates continue to haunt her. We should all be haunted by persistently high infection rates... See the rest of this article here: sciencespeaksblog.org/2014/08/11/aids-2014-confronting-tragedy-and-progress-20th-international-aids-conference-brought-approaches-community-together/
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:30:01 +0000
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