Sign the Vienna Declaration
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July 2010 The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the world’s leading independent association of HIV professionals. The IAS Newsletter is a tool for the organization’s diverse members to find out more about past, ongoing and future activities at the IAS and to learn how to become involved. For more information about the IAS, to search for and contact other members, or to find breaking news in HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment, and updates on upcoming IAS conferences, please visit the website at www.iasociety.org. Sign the Vienna Declaration Join the call of the international scientific community for drug A person previously addicted to drugs gives an educational lecture to patients at a drug policy reform. page 6 rehabilitation centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo: © G.M.B. Akash / Panos Pictures Message from the President page 2 AIDS 2010 to Intensify Focus on Introducing the New IAS Officers page 13 Message from the Acting Executive Director page 2 Human Rights page 5 The IAS Talks with Michel Kazatchkine page 14 Towards A Cure: IAS Pre-Conference The Vienna Declaration page 6 Regional Conferences Update page 15 Workshop page 3 IAS Activities at AIDS 2010 page 8 Measuring the Long-term Impact of the International Freedom and Equality in Africa page 4 Bridging the Divide: HIV and Health Systems page 11 AIDS Conference page 16 Universal Access Now Update page 12 2 Messages from the President and the Acting Executive Director IAS Newsletter July 2010 decreasing HIV transmission. This alone can addressing those needs requires that we have a “game-changing” effect on our work. change the course of global drug policy, em- bracing evidence over political expediency Yet, as evidence mounts and we are on the and criminalization. To that end, I urge you verge of even greater progress, we face an to read the Vienna Declaration on page 6 alarming retreat from political leaders on and visit www.viennadeclaration.com to sign their commitment to universal access. This on. The declaration will be one of the most cannot be allowed to stand. As those who important outcomes of AIDS 2010 and we know first-hand both the power and poten- need as many signatures as possible. Please tial of scaling up prevention and treatment sign it today. services to reach universal access, we must remain vocal advocates for the resources as i complete my tenure as IAS President, and political commitment necessary to I welcome my colleague Dr. Elly Katabira, achieve this goal. who will be the first African to hold this lead- Message from the ership position. Elly will bring tremendous With its Universal Access Now campaign, experience and a crucial perspective to his President the IAS is doing tremendous work to build presidency. I look forward to continuing to greater support for renewed commitments. work with him on the Governing Council. 2010 is a pivotal moment in our As we push for universal access, we must collective efforts to change the remain mindful of the need to embrace all it has been a tremendous honour to serve course of the HIV epidemic. those affected by HIV and AIDS, and, as we in this role, especially at this critical junc- prepare for Vienna, I am especially cognizant ture. It remains my deepest hope that our With four million people in low- and of the need for significant improvements in collective efforts to build a deep well of middle-income countries now on treatment, programmes for people who use drugs. As my scientific and programmatic evidence will we have conclusive evidence of our ability colleague Nora Volkow and I recently noted in move world leaders to action. to build large-scale, effective HIV treatment a JAMA editorial, “Ultimately, the HIV/AIDS programmes. At the same time, we have a epidemic cannot be adequately dealt with Julio Montaner critical new understanding of the secondary locally or internationally without addressing IAS President benefit of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the needs of HIV-infected substance users.” With just months before the universal ac- i imagine that a great many of us will now cess deadline, AIDS 2010 could have been come to Vienna deeply frustrated by this the last checkpoint in reaching that goal and turn of events, and rightly so. While this commitment. is not where we would have hoped to find ourselves at this moment, we must act as donor nations should see and be wel- the circumstances demand. The fact that coming the tremendous return on their the G8 renewed its commitment to univer- investments – lives saved and productive sal access, but this time without a timeline work years extended. The most devastated and again without financial commitment, countries, now witnesses to the possibility does not help much. The crucial proof of of change, should be marshalling their own progress now depends on the success of the resources and increasing their resolve to be next Global Fund replenishment meeting true partners in HIV programme scale-up. just ahead of us. AIDS 2010 can be used to highlight what can be accomplished in the under this scenario, the impressive Universal next three years with the necessary influx Access Now campaign initiated by the IAS under of resources. the leadership of former Executive Director Robin Gorna would have never been necessary. as We continue making the case for uni- versal access, the call for human rights must Message from the Acting instead, We gather this July with the real- remain at the core. No matter how many Executive Director ity of more and more people living with HIV resources flow, our ultimate success is also that have been benefitting from the treat- dependent upon the expansion of human Since 2005 we have had a dream. ment scale-up now facing stock-outs while rights for those at risk for and living with others who envisioned starting treatment HIV. The opening of AIDS 2010 are rejected due to cruel financial pressures should have been a celebra- faced by funding agencies and implement- Mats Ahnlund tion of universal access to HIV ers on the ground. The notion that the Acting Executive Director prevention, treatment, care and world’s wealthy nations would make such significant investments in AIDS only to support. The dream included curtail those investments when momentum Editorial Committee: Shirin Heidari, Erika increased commitments from and science are on our side is unfathom- Lundstrom, Jacqueline Bataringaya, Scott donor and recipient nations able to those in need of treatment and those Sanders, Regina Aragón heartened by the impact of their who care for them. Equally disheartening Web Coordinator: Mona Dolan is the unwillingness of African nations to © International AIDS Society, Geneva Email: [email protected] ■ investments. fulfill their pledge to contribute 15% of their national budgets to health. IAS Newsletter July 2010 Towards a Cure: HIV Reservoirs and Strategies to Control Them 3 Towards a Cure: Current anti-HIV drugs do not eradicate HIV HIV Reservoirs and Strategies to Control START HAART STOP Them HIV infection is Antiretroviral drugs However, the virus characterized by high (HAART) are capable of rebounds after levels of circulating suppressing HIV, even to cessation of therapy. ias pre-conference Workshop: viruses in the blood. undetectable levels. 16–17 July 2010, vienna, austria By Alain Lafeuillade, Marie-Capucine Pénicaud VIRUS CIRCULATING Limit of detection and Sierra Milley-Boland “there is a strong need for continued TIME investments in basic research in order to HIV hides in reservoirs that are not sensitive to current therapies. increase our understanding of the mecha- Adapted from Nicolas Chomont, VTGI Florida nisms of HIV persistence and elaborate better and more affordable treatment op- The workshop organizers have placed a Session 5: What are Potential Therapeutic Interventions and How to Evaluate Them? tions,” noted Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, strong emphasis on ensuring representa- IAS Governing Council Member and tion of scientific excellence from around the Frank Maldarelli, National Cancer Institute, U.S. Chair of the pre-conference workshop in world, and scholarships will be provided for National Institutes of Health, will discuss what July 2009 at the 5th IAS Conference on HIV at least 62 participants. therapeutic strategies must be developed to Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention. target HIV reservoirs, and what tools are needed to assess their effect. Key issues reservoirs may hold Key to eradication The workshop programme will feature key- Closing Keynote Current antiretroviral drugs fail to com- note addresses delivered by some of the pletely eradicate the virus from the body world’s most distinguished researchers and Daria Hazuda, Merck Research Labs, will discuss because HIV rests in some cells in a numerous oral abstract presentations. the feasibility of HIV eradication. non-replicating stage called latent infec- tion. Over time, latent cells can become the programme Will cover a wide range next steps activated, causing HIV to begin replicat- of issues related to HIV reservoirs, from the In order to broaden the workshop’s impact, ing again. The strategies currently being characterization of viral reservoirs to the crucial the abstracts presented at the workshop and investigated to control HIV reservoirs may question of the feasibility of HIV eradication. an impact report will also be published in hold the key to the eradication of HIV. the Journal of the International AIDS Society. However, HIV eradication or even a ‘func- agenda For those interested in deepening their tional cure’ remain daunting challenges. knowledge of HIV reservoirs, The Fifth Opening Keynote International Workshop on HIV Persistence despite the availabilitY of new an- during Therapy will be held in St. Martin, tiretroviral drugs – easier to take and Steven Deeks, University of California, San West Indies, 6–9 December 2011.