The association of HIV professionals, with members from more than 180 countries working on all fronts of the global announced the return of the prestigious International AIDS conference. This year’s will be the 21st conference and it will be held in Durban, South Africa from July 18 – July 22 where the historic 13th International AIDS conference was held in 2000.
2000 was the first time the world’s largest AIDS gathering was held in a developing country. AIDS 2000 changed the way future conferences would be held. At the landmark conference, under theme “Break the Silence”, the conference put a human face on the epidemic.
Since then, there has been a spike in the attention paid to ending the HIV&AIDS epidemic worldwide and various achievements. For example; acceleration of treatment of people living with HIV, reduction in prices of medicines for HIV, drop in new HIV infections in adults and children. The number of pregnant women accessing antiretroviral therapy and new HIV infections among children have dropped among many more achievements. While these successes cannot be attributed to the AIDS 2000 conference alone, it certainly played a huge role.
So for everyone involved in the HIV&AIDS response, going back to Durban and the possibilities of what can be achieved in the fight against HIV is exciting.
Under the theme Access Equity Rights Now, the conference goes back to Durban this year amidst attempts for universal access to comprehensive treatment, care and prevention, the need to repeal laws that criminalize HIV and overcome many other injustices.
This is a call to action to work together and reach the people who still lack access to comprehensive treatment, prevention, care and support services. For example, more than 60% of people living with HIV remain without antiretroviral therapy; marginalized groups remain under-prioritized in the response; investments in HIV prevention research appear to have flattened; and widespread violations of human rights including criminalisation continue to undermine effective responses
You can be part of the conference through various ways including submitting an abstract, proposals for workshop, taking part in the global village or having a satellite.
For more details check out the conference website www.aids2016.org
