Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues
Recent guidelines are all recommending that HIV treatment be started at a higher CD4 count because of issues such as the ongoing damage caused by HIV itself, and prevention of transmission. Issues in long-term treatment, such as potential side effects, the development of resistance, the cost and sustainability of programmes in resource-poor settings, are some of the potential problems for such a strategy.
The success of highly active antiretroviral therapy, HAART, has been evident for 15 years. Such long-term therapy can have complications though, especially when compounded by co-morbid conditions such as ageing and smoking.
The quality of the available public services which provide medical and social support are far from meeting the needs of injecting drug users (IDUs) and people living with HIV (PLHIV).
This session will examine how leaders from key populations have made a difference by being involved. It will look at selected examples of how their meangful involvement in AIDS policy and programme design has improved the AIDS response, from advocating to change counter productive policies and laws such as criminalization of behavior, to ensuring that universal access targets, AIDS strategies, programmes and monitoring and evaluation systems take into consideration their realities and needs.
Too many young people are living with or otherwise affected by HIV.
Participants of this roundtable include a chief of criminal policy, a high ranking police colonel who worked in drug law enforcement and the head of the Argentinean Public Defender’s Office. The moderator will lead the participants in a discussion of how law enforcement may contribute to a positive response to HIV, human rights, and public health and how the HIV community can engage the criminal justice system in a constructive dialogue.
Jon Cohen, a reporter for Science magazine, provides daily insights and observations from the conference in interviews with the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Jackie Judd.
This session builds upon the AIDS Ambassadors session at AIDS 2008, and brings together the current AIDS Ambassadors to discuss their evolving role.
Civil society experts will discuss the integration of women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive rights into the HIV response, with a special focus on women and girls living with HIV and AIDS.
For more information please see the conference Programme-at-a-Glance. Panel 2: Julio Montaner, Canada Brigitte Schmied, Austria John Dalli, Malta Paul De Lay, UNAIDS Annie Lennox, United Kingdom Alois Stöger, Austria