An estimated 24,000 PWLHA, activists, policy makers, care givers, medical personnel and NGO representatives from 170 countries attended the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto from 13th to 18th August.

Despite the great attention being given to the AIDS pandemic, during the six days of the conference, around 50,000 people died from the infection, and another 80,000 were newly infected around the globe.

UNAIDS estimates that 39 million people were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2005.

The conference, the biggest one yet, was held under the theme “Time to Deliver”, and aimed to focus on the promises and progress made to scale up treatment care and prevention.

Global Village: Canadian Grandmothers(GMs) help African Grandmothers in raising and taking care of AIDS orphans

In addition to a wide variety of plenary sessions and concurrent sessions, there was a global village, an outreach program and a youth program to address the needs of the various participants.

The conference was also important in that HIV/AIDS was the subject of increased public interest due to the presence of Bill and Melinda Gates and Bill Clinton, both of whom spent two days at the conference in many plenary sessions.

Addressing the opening session, Bill Gates said that for poor or married women, the ABC policy had its limits since abstinence, being faithful and using condoms depended on the man. What was needed, he said, was to put the power to prevent HIV in the hands of women. “No matter where she lives, who she is or what she does, a woman should never need her partner’s permission to save her own life,” he said.

In a panel discussion, Clinton also emphasized the need to empower women as a way to stop the spread of HIV, and commended Gates for looking to and believing in the future by investing in humankind.

At the 1996 AIDS Conference in Vancouver, antiretroviral therapy (ART) was first discussed. Patients typically had to take a cocktail of many pills throughout the day, and the side effects were often severe.

Ten years later, medicine has advanced, with a patient now typically taking one pill a day with fewer effects. To those who have access to ART, AIDS is no longer a death sentence but a manageable disease.

Furthermore, microbicides are under trial, and it is expected that within the next one to five years they will be in production, giving women a way to protect themselves, something which JOICFP is especially happy to hear.

A time of opportunity

Addressing the conference, Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS, said, “We are at a time of great hope and opportunity because we have achieved more in the past five years than in the previous twenty.”
Piot went on to emphasize the need to keep AIDS on the political agenda, and outlined six key points to be addressed. (For a full version of Piot’s speech click here.)

Global Village: Everone listen attentively GMs to GMs initiative

In August, the British medical journal The Lancet devoted one entire issue to the subject of HIV/AIDS. The editor of the journal asked, “Why is the world’s response to AIDS failing?” He argues that a country specific approach is needed, and that the 2008 conference in Mexico could drive progress, saying, “Talking is easy. Doing will demand a revolution.”

The conference included more community representation than before, with 200 grandmothers from Africa meeting grandmothers from Canada to discuss HIV/AIDS. Many grandmothers in Africa are having to take care of children who have become AIDS orphans.

Integration with RH/R

International organizations such as UNFPA, IPPF, and APA, held various plenary, concurrent, satellite and poster sessions on the need to integrate HIV/AIDS prevention/treatment programs with existing reproductive health and rights (RH/R) activities.

Melinda Gates talks about the Gate Project in India; women are the key

Dr. Gill Greer, who takes over as Executive Director, IPPF, from September, spoke on advocacy experiences with policy and decision makers on the intimate link between HIV & sexual health frameworks, such as cost savings, prevention messages and provision of supplies, comprehensive sexuality education, increased institutional capacity and resource mobilization.

JOICFP is very keen for HIV/AIDS prevention/treatment be further integrated with existing RH/R activities, especially at the grassroots level.