News & Abstracts : Daily News Archive

June 20, 2002
Notice From The XIV International AIDS Conference
Status report on awarding of Spanish visas to foreign delegates.

June 18, 2002
Clinton & Mandela To Speak At Closing Ceremony Of International AIDS Conference
Former US President, Bill Clinton, and former South African President, Nelson Mandela will jointly close the XIV International AIDS Conference on 12 July 2002.

July 05, 2002
March for Worldwide AIDS Treatment
The ATTN March for Life, Fira de Barcelona Conference grounds, Sunday July 07, will be a global call to action to provide treatment for 2 million people living with and dying from HIV/AIDS before the 2004 International AIDS Conference in Bangkok.

July 09, 2002
Vaxgen AIDS Vaccine Trials
If the results meet the optimistic views of Francis, the vaccine could be on the market in 2004 or 2005.

July 09, 2002
Until All Life has Equal Value�
It was fitting that the first plenary of AIDS2002 should be the second Jonathan Mann memorial lecture, powerfully delivered by Irene Fernandez of Malaysia.

July 09, 2002
The Price of Delay: 5 Million Deaths A Year
Delays in meeting funding commitments made by governments at UNGASS last year will result in 5 million deaths per year at a time when scientists believe anti-HIV drugs are able to offer infected people the chance to lead �normal lives.�

July 09, 2002
HIV and Freedom of Travel - Where Should Future AIDS Conferences Take Place?
But this example shows us again that we have to address travel restrictions for people living with HIV/AIDS. For those infected, these restrictions limit possibilities for sharing information, discussions, and for participation in general. This situation in a so-called global society is unbearable.

July 10, 2002
Thumbs Down for Thompson
For the 30 minutes he read his speech, his voice was buried in a volley of boos that came from a group of AIDS activists who had stormed the well-attended conference to �blow the whistle on Tommy Thompson (and President George Bush) for crimes against people with AIDS.�

July 10, 2002
Giving Anger Ammunition - An exclusive interview with Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, director of the World Health Organisation
�It is difficult for a single UN agency like WHO, with a budget the size of two country hospitals in England, to create global change,� says Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland.

July 10, 2002
Interview of Richard Feachem
What is most exciting about the Global Fund is that it is, unquestionably, the most important initiative in global health in my professional lifetime. It is an entirely new structure.

July 10, 2002
HIV Vaccines: How Close?
The media circus that followed Dr Robert Gallo yesterday down the aisle of hall 1.2 suggested we were in for something big. Gallo�s presentation certainly turned out to be provocative.

July 10, 2002
When Should You Start HIV Therapy?
The main measures of the stage of HIV infection are the CD4 cell count, the viral load (VL) and the clinical picture. It is on these that the strategies for commencement of antiretroviral therapy (ART) are based. But one has to take other factors into account as well.

July 11, 2002
Risking Death to Stay Alive
A third of all women canvassed at three ante-natal clinics in a study in Soweto, South Africa, admitted to having had �transactional sex� in return for food, clothing, transportation, school fees, cash or gifts for their children � and were HIV positive.

July 11, 2002
Herpes, HIV�s Silent Friend
The study suggests that recent HSV-2 infection, which causes genital ulcers, is independently associated with a 3.64-fold increased risk of primary HIV-infection.

July 11, 2002
ART: The Choices are Wide
A paper originating from St Mary�s Hospital in London presented evidence that short-course antiretroviral therapy (SCART) in primary HIV infection provides patients with a viable alternative to commencing long-term ART.

July 11, 2002
Throw Open the Doors! - Activist Offers the Drug Companies A Deal
The partial price reductions and insufficient donations by drug companies will not assist in the long term to deal with the epidemic in a sustainable and an effective manner

July 12, 2002
Scaling-Up: Lessons from Brazil
None of these outcomes could have been achieved without embracing a balanced prevention and treatment approach and the firm advocacy of the human rights of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

July 12, 2002
Barcelona Shock: Gay Men Vanish
Of the 22 million people dead from AIDS, less than 1 million have been gay men � still an appalling death toll, but only a small part of the total. This is reflected in the Conference proceedings.

July 12, 2002
Let Us Speak Of Successes!
Women of the world, face up to stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic with the force of a lioness protecting her family.

July 12, 2002
At The Epicenter: Bangkok 2004
The International AIDS Society, UNAIDS and the Royal Thai Government have concluded an agreement to hold the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, from 11 to 16 July 2004.

July 25, 2002
From Science to Action
This is "the summer before everything is going to change," said Paul Farmer in yesterday's plenary session.

July 25, 2002
Staying Alive: Clinton Meets with Youth Activists
Young activists attending the International HIV/AIDS conference in Barcelona had a unique opportunity to pose hard-nosed questions to some of the world's most prominent leaders on their HIV/AIDS policies and programmes.

July 25, 2002
UNGASS Will Make Governments Accountable
Lingering doubts about whether HIV programs are working is the greatest barrier for mobilizing funds.

July 25, 2002
What Is A Promise Worth?
Unless we act now, 45 million more people will become infected with HIV by the end of this decade. At least 29 million of these infections can be prevented with more money and more action.

July 07, 2002
Jordi Casabona, Conference Co-Chair: Conference Opening Speech
Two years have passed since I said to many of you in Durban �see you soon�. I can tell you that since then I have had some of the longest days of my life. But, these two years have been among the shortest.

July 12, 2002
Jordi Casabona, Conference Co-Chair: Conference Closing Speech
Overall, I think the Barcelona Conference has given a boost to programmatic and policy issues. It has created a consensus regarding the scale and the characteristics of the response needed now, as well as a sense of global partnership that should help to push for global effective responses.

September 09, 2002
Important Last Minute Scientific Information
Abstract WeOrB1307, entitled "Incidence of coronary artery disease in HIV-infected patients receiving or not protease inhibitors: a randomized, multicenter study", and abstract MoPeD3571, entitled "Condom effectiveness in reducing heterosexual HIV transmission" have been withdrawn.

July 07, 2002
Jose M Gatell, Conference Co-Chair: Conference Opening Speech
On behalf of the IAS, and in close cooperation with UNAIDS and the four NGO co-organizers, a large group of dedicated staff from several countries have been working very hard during almost four years to organize the XIV International AIDS Conference (IAC).

July 12, 2002
Jose M Gatell, Conference Co-Chair: Conference Closing Speech
Welcome to the closing ceremony of the XIV International AIDS Conference (IAC). After a long and hopefully fruitful week it is now time to wrap up, to say goodbye, to welcome the Thai delegation and most importantly to open a period of 2 years of very hard work.

July 11, 2002
Lift the US Ban on HIV-Positive People
Questions regarding Nazi or Communist affiliation cause few problems. More problematic is the line regarding �Communicable disease,� a question introduced ten years ago when the US Senate voted to ban entry to HIV-positive people.

July 08, 2002
Welcome to the Conference!
Benvinguts, bievenidos, welcome to the XIV International AIDS Conference. Two years have passed since I said to many of you in Durban, �see you soon.� I can tell you that since then I have had some of the longest days of my life. But these two years have been among the shortest.

July 08, 2002
HIV-Positive Delegates � Expectations of Action, Hope
More than 1,000 of us attending this conference have self-identified as HIV-positive. Others of us have chosen not to declare so. We are caregivers, educators, counselors, managers, patients

July 08, 2002
People and Borders
Mawa Ndiaye spoke yesterday at the opening of the community forum in behalf of the Local Community Committee and Red2002, the Spanish AIDS NGO�s Network.

July 08, 2002
Keeping The Heat Under UNGASS
One of the strengths of UNGASS � and a major frustration for activists seeking to influence the process � is that much of the negotiation was done by diplomats. These people are highly experienced at working the UN system, but few had previously seen so much information on sex and drugs land in their diplomatic bags.

July 08, 2002
The Global Fund�s Growing Pains
It�s still too early to say whether the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will succeed in raising and intelligently disbursing sufficient billions of dollars to have a significant impact. But it certainly got off to a hard-working high-speed start - albeit one which involved a couple of stumbles along the way.

July 08, 2002
Communities, Commitment and Action
The 2002 Community Forum, held on Sunday 7 July, was intended as a space and time for some of the delegates �to meet, to share, and to continue the process of building a durable global commitment to AIDS.�

July 08, 2002
Art as the Expression of Solidarity
A meeting with Judith Cobe�a i Gu�rdia, convenor of the Cultural Programme of XIV International AIDS Conference

July 08, 2002
W@B: What Is It?
"Women at Barcelona" (W@B) is an international coalition of women that is co-ordinating a series of events to highlight gender issues and build women's visibility at this conference.

July 09, 2002
ACT-UP Strikes Again
On Monday, ACT-Up Paris closed down the Roche exhibition booth, posting �Closed due to Death,� citing frustration with the company because they only produced enough product for their private research trials

July 09, 2002
HIV in the United Nations?
Perhaps the UN is doing effective work in-house, but we�re not hearing about it. As one former UN staffer told us, �UNAIDS is very supportive of its HIV-infected and affected staff, but the rest of the system has a long way to catch up.

July 09, 2002
What Women Want From This Conference
During the day-long women�s pre-conference satellite hosted by the International AIDS Society�s Women�s Caucus and the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), nearly 400 women and (a few) men joined a dynamic session that combined panel discussions, interactive questions, regional group meetings, and advocacy work.

July 09, 2002
Education Is The Only Vaccine We Got! - World Bank and UNAIDS Press Conference on Education and HIV
According to the new World Bank report Education and HIV/AIDS: A Window of Hope, countries need to urgently strengthen their education systems. Education offers a window of hope unlike any other for countries, communities and families to escape the deadly grip of HIV/AIDS.

July 09, 2002
Politics, Money and Reproductive Health
Politics and money will remain at the very epicentre of HIV prevention and the provision of care. As we turn to face another potential area of controversy � the provision of vaccines � there can be little doubt that the challenge to find an approach that is both fiscally and politically effective will continue.

July 10, 2002
The Ethics of Informed Consent
A delegate from Zimbabwe said that informed consent is used more often to protect doctors in medico-legal cases than to inform the patients.

July 10, 2002
HIV/AIDS: A Governance Challenge
If Durban 2002 was a wake-up call, Barcelona 2002 is likely to be the �yes, but� Conference.

July 10, 2002
Rethinking Women: Risk and Vulnerability
Many women are still getting infected with HIV/AIDS everyday of their lives. This was a key issue that emerged from a study conducted in Bangladesh.

July 10, 2002
Organ Transplant Successes In HIV-Positive Patients
Patients who are receiving anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) have a much better chance of host and graft survival. HIV-positive patients have traditionally been excluded from organ transplant programs.

July 10, 2002
The IAS Young Investigator Awards
Seven young investigators have been chosen, one from each Program Track, to receive a special award.

July 10, 2002
Girls Trafficked to Indian Brothels
Thirteen is an age to go to school, to enjoy with friends, but I was in a dark room all the day and night, weeping.

July 11, 2002
Church Not Given Prominence in Barcelona
The church has to tackle misconceptions which Rev Byamugisha admits has not helped in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

July 11, 2002
Positive Women Must Take Centre Stage
Where is the plenary presentation which highlights our experiences, skills and yes our own analysis of the epidemic and our increasing vulnerability?

July 11, 2002
Still Mired In Rhetoric
The UNAIDS document is an excellent academic compendium of the various theories and experiences of stigma and discrimination. But it fails to address the crucial synergy between treatment and prevention and the systemic inequities that fuel the spread of the epidemic.

July 11, 2002
Another Good Reason Why the International AIDS Conference Should Be Hosted In the South: Security!
On the first day of arrival I had a woman checking out the zipper of my backpack while entering the subway. The next day my friend found a hand in her handbag which did not belong to her.

July 11, 2002
Minimizing Vaccine Approval Delays
Long delays between the development of a new vaccine and its extensive use is often occasioned by the disparate regulatory requirements of the countries to which it is being offered.

July 11, 2002
Lift the US Ban on HIV-Positive People
Questions regarding Nazi or Communist affiliation cause few problems. More problematic is the line regarding �Communicable disease,� a question introduced ten years ago when the US Senate voted to ban entry to HIV-positive people.

July 11, 2002
ACT UP: We�re Here with a Plan
They so well organised. Before they came to the conference they worked out a plan of action: for each day they have a different plan.

July 11, 2002
Where Are The African Researchers?
What has shocked me is that more often than not, regardless of the topic, the work has been presented by an activist or an academic from North America or Europe.

July 11, 2002
Time to Scale up Harm Reduction
One of the most striking and pleasant ways that this Barcelona conference differs from the conferences of the past is that that there has been broader coverage of issues related to providing a continuum of prevention and care.

July 11, 2002
HIV/AIDS and Mobile Populations � Increasingly In the Spotlight
Mobile populations seem to get more and more attention at international AIDS conferences and their specific vulnerability to HIV/AIDS gets increasing recognition.

July 12, 2002
What Makes a Great Plenary
I don�t know about you but I haven�t been to a plenary talk in the last two days that grabbed my attention and left me excited � with one exception.

July 12, 2002
Safe Sex and the HIV-Positive
Safe sex practices are necessary between infected sexual partners. Superinfection is a co-infection which occurs during the course of established disease.

July 12, 2002
India�s Struggle against AIDS
We have the will, we want the money�, says Shatrughan Sinha, India�s new Minister for Health.

July 25, 2002
AIDS Orphans Alert!
"America must do more, and Americans as individuals can and must empower themselves to take greater action", said Timothy E Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation.

July 25, 2002
Stigma? Be Positive
The thing that always amazes me the most is that each time there seem to be more openly HIV-positive people among the thousands doggedly treading these concrete floors.

July 25, 2002
W@B: Women at Bangkok: Continuing Our Gender Work
We must look forward to how we will ensure that we will never again hear gender-blind presentations at any AIDS conference.

July 25, 2002
Wainberg Slams Mbeki, Drug Companies
Mark Wainberg expressed his heartbreak that the message that came from Durban in 2000, on "Africa's number one enemy, HIV/AIDS," has had so little effect.

July 09, 2002
Leadership and Drug Research
Over the past 20 years, there have been pitifully few new drugs or innovations in the field of HIV/AIDS, as compared to other diseases such as cancer and heart disease.

July 10, 2002
Microfinancing HIV Prevention among Women
Providing small loans for micro-enterprise initiatives coupled with HIV/gender education have proved to reduce HIV risk among sex workers in Nairobi.

July 10, 2002
New Drugs, New Targets
Increasing knowledge of the process of integration of HIV into CD4 lymphocytes has provided direction for drug manufacturers to seek and find new and effective targets for drug therapy.

July 10, 2002
Positively Pregnant
Should HIV-positive women have babies? The answer is a resounding �yes� for women from well-resourced areas, and a reserved �probably not� for the remainder.

July 10, 2002
HIV Drug Resistance
Inexperienced physicians treating patients with HIV/AIDS pose a risk factor for the development of drug resistance.

July 11, 2002
Comics Inform South African Youth
eKasi is an innovative mass media based HIV preventative and care initiative that combines a serialised monthly comic book and a weekly interactive radio talk radio show.

July 11, 2002
Economists Criticised Over Drug Studies
This is bullshit. We are tired of listening to people who tell us why ARV can�t be available to poor people. This would never be tolerated in the North.

July 11, 2002
Creating United Fronts to Empower Women
Intersect�s HIV/violence against women and girls project, launched last year in South Africa, drew only two dozen disparate participants, but every one shared similar frustrations and difficulties.

July 11, 2002
No Excuse for Inaction: Fauci
Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) does not eradicate HIV infection, but, Fauci continued, this should not serve as a spurious excuse for not treating HIV infection.

July 11, 2002
Positive Women Call for Microbicides
In an important step forward from the Microbicide conference held in Antwerp in May 2002, the voice of positive women was heard along side the voices of scientists at the Bridging session Movement on Microbicides.

July 11, 2002
Health Disparities and IDU HIV Interventions
Three papers dealt with issues relating to IDU populations.

July 11, 2002
Integration of HIV into Health Services
In a region with the highest HIV prevalence rates in the country, and where TB is the most common infectious disease, an integrated approach was adopted to tackle both diseases with a united front.

July 12, 2002
Women Leaders United In Fight Against HIV/AIDS?
Women are physically more vulnerable than men to HIV infection, and poverty and gender discrimination often put them at risk.

July 12, 2002
HIV Pathogenesis
It is well-known that error processes in viral replication generate mutations of HIV-1.

July 25, 2002
Where is the Prevention Activism?
There has been virtually no discussion at the conference focusing on the real problems and barriers to effective prevention.

July 11, 2002
USAID Provides Treatments to Three Countries
Ghana: In Ghana, the �Start� program will provide antiretroviral treatment in two districts in the Eastern Region of Ghana, where an estimated 18,000 people out of a population of 240,000 are HIV positive.

July 08, 2002
An Opportunity to Change History
"This Conference has to be a mobilising force, a place where all of us come together and say, 'we are going to make this work.'"

July 09, 2002
From Yokahama to Barcelona: The Painfully Slow Progress of Microbicides
Probably a few presentations at Barcelona will conclude with a slide proclaiming �Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it�.

July 09, 2002
Sex Workers Rally in Southern India
In the first-ever public demonstrations against police violence against women and men in sex work, more than a thousand sex workers held protest rallies and demonstrations on 28 June in the three major south Indian cities of Chennai, Bangalore, and Trivandrum.

July 10, 2002
Grassroots Program Lights the Way
Thousands of flames flickered during the Opening Ceremony of the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona in remembrance of those who died from AIDS. For some attendees of the Opening Ceremony this may have been their first experience with an AIDS candlelight memorial. But there is an annual event.

July 10, 2002
Global Harm Reduction Strategies
Speakers at Monday�s harm reduction session stressed that there were no �quick fix solutions� but that needle exchange programmes (NEPs) were indeed proving effective.

July 10, 2002
Harm Reduction and Policy Implications
Despite the fact that harm reduction projects and experiences are widely reported to be successful, it is still difficult to develop and implement them.

July 11, 2002
HIV/AIDS: The World�s Biggest Threat to Human Rights
Stigma, silence, discrimination and the denial of confidentiality increases the impact of the epidemic on individuals, families and communities and results in the denial of the most basic civil and political entitlements.

July 11, 2002
Why Is Accelerating Access So Slow?
The global initiative advanced a plan for reducing the price of antiretroviral therapy and getting it to those most in need: people with HIV/AIDS in the developing world, in particular sub-Saharan Africa.

July 11, 2002
The Maze of Mainstreaming
We know so much about the macro impact as well as impact on the individual, household and community, yet we still struggle to know how best to mainstream it meaningfully into our work.

July 11, 2002
A Rights-Based Approach in Latin America
A rights-based approach looks at the infected person not as a patient, nor a beneficiary, not even a service-receiver, but rather an equal partner and co- implementer of AIDS programs.

July 11, 2002
Discussing Approaches to Prevention
After the good news about microbicides we wasted a lot of time by not investing more. Now the work ahead will be in clinical trials to evaluate over 30 microbicide products currently in the pipeline.

July 11, 2002
Global Fund Becomes Focal Point
In a Tuesday evening satellite, �Financing HIV/AIDS,� the chair, Stephen Lewis, noted that only US$2.1 billion has been pledged to the Fund, with only US$300 million of that actually received.

July 11, 2002
Empowering Migrants against HIV/AIDS
Asia is in the throes of economic growth and globalisation. Due to the economic factors involved, a vast number of people are crossing borders to seek employment.

July 12, 2002
Sex Worker Rights Perspective On 100% Condom Use Programmes
NSWP was protesting the promotion of �100% condom use programmes� as a best practice. UNAIDS and other leading HIV institutions are promoting these as a �best practice�.

July 25, 2002
Youth Speaking Out
Young people are gravely under-represented at international forums. Of the 15,000 participants attending Barcelona, there are only 200 young participants.

July 09, 2002
South Africa United At Exhibition Opening
From far away you could hear the songs Sholoza and the national anthem Nkosi Sikelele Africa, being sung by South African delegates with their minister of Health, Dr Tshabala-Msimang, who was opening the exhibition stand of the South African Department of Health at XIV International AIDS Conference.

July 09, 2002
Women and AIDS, Two Faces of the Same Problem
Since this epidemic began, we women living with HIV/AIDS have been left aside and now, twenty years later we still have no access to ARVs in poor countries, and in the best of cases we have access to discontinuous, interrupted or pregnancy-lasting therapies.

July 10, 2002
Reasons to be Cheerful: Expectations of AIDS2002
Why have so many struggled, some across half the globe, to a crowded conference centre in Europe? For many reasons, of course.

July 11, 2002
A Poverty of Information
The first thing that has really struck me about this conference is how we have lost the expanded definition of treatment and now only talk about ARVs.

July 11, 2002
Men and Microbicides
In a cross section of short random interview with 26 male delegates at XIV International AIDS Conference here in Barcelona, 14 responded �Yes� to the question �Have you heard of microbicides?

July 10, 2002
HIV Testing In South Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
The necessary infrastructure in terms of clinics and hospitals did exist in South Africa, but VCT was still in its infancy.

July 10, 2002
An Opportunity Not Yet Lost - HIV/AIDS in Central and Eastern Europe
The countries of the former Soviet Union and central and eastern Europe are experiencing the fastest-growing epidemic in history, yet it is the most under-addressed in terms of response.

July 10, 2002
The India Satellite: What was New?
India, with the second biggest number of HIV/AIDS cases, is frantic in the search for new ideas. Did the India Satellite live up to these expectations of the participants.

July 11, 2002
UNAIDS Special Session on India
The new Health Minister for India, Shatrughan Sinha, acknowledged on Monday that care and treatment were a necessary part of an appropriate response to HIV in India.

July 11, 2002
No ARV in Lithuania
The Lithuanian government has stopped providing any ARV treatment to PLWA in Lithuania.

July 11, 2002
TB-HIV: Still Filing for Divorce!
In Africa the HIV epidemic is fueling a dramatic surge of TB, where the number of new TB cases is increasing by 6% each year, or three times the global rate.

July 10, 2002
New Goals for Global Fund
Wealthy nations must give at least US$9 billion for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in 2003, according to a panel yesterday of four leading global health policymakers.

July 10, 2002
Speech Release: Dr Richard Feachem
The Global Fund is committed and I am committed and you are committed to raising many billions of dollars of additional resources, and getting these funds to those on the frontlines who are really making a difference.

July 11, 2002
Scaling-Up: Lessons from the Brazilian Experience
There is no Brazilian model. What we have been doing is to put into practice principles that have long been recognised by the international community.

July 11, 2002
Children: Vision for the Future
Why should we value children? What is our vision for the world we would like to help build for children? And why have we fallen so short of these deeply held values and grand visions?

July 12, 2002
Vaccine Trials
Developing a vaccine against HIV infection is like searching for a �missing star in the constellation of effective [HIV] prevention products.