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Organisers expand scope of 2002 AIDS meeting
SCIENCE AND MEDICINE FEATURE
Organisers expand scope of 2002 AIDS meeting
52
one dedicated to “action” with bridging sessions where scientists and those working in programmes and policy can meet and discuss the issues. Casabona says the goal of the framework is to maintain the scientific quality of the meeting, which will continue
Rights were not granted to include this image in electronic media. Please refer to the printed journal. Science in action
to have tracks featuring presentations of new work by the world’s top researchers in the basic, clinical, and public-health sciences, but also to provide a high-profile venue where programme and policy issues can be presented and discussed. In addition to the new format, the conference will have three new tracks: “Prevention Science”, “Interventions and Program Implementation”, and “Advocacy and Policy”. The prevention science track will be added to the science component. In past meetings, the conferences had no special venue for prevention research, Casabona says, and, as a result, good papers on prevention were often scattered throughout the meeting diluting their effect. There was also a feeling that prevention research was less scientific than clinical studies. This perception is untrue, Casabona says, pointing to a growing body of prevention research that has been conducted as rigorously as are clinical trials of drugs. The prevention science track will bring together researchers in all areas of the field, from scientists working on new vaccines and microbicides to field workers conducting behavioural work in the community. “You can’t separate biological and non-biological interventions, because they must be used together”, Casabona says. “To prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, for example, you need to give antiretrovirals to infected pregnant women, but you also need to increase testing coverage and primary prevention among young women.” The interventions and programme implementation track, which will be part of the second “action” component of the conference, will focus on how to take research findings and put
Panos Pictures
n an effort to close what they feel is a serious gap between AIDS scientists and people working on the ground in the fight against the worldwide HIV epidemic, organisers of this summer’s XIV International AIDS Conference have reformatted the meeting to give greater prominence to prevention, implementation, and policy. The biannual conferences have become perhaps the most influential meetings in the area, and the July 7–12 meeting, which will be held in Barcelona, Spain, is expected to draw more than 15 000 scientists, clinicians, activists, and journalists from around the world. Past conferences have placed a heavy emphasis on biomedical research, while prevention and fieldbased programmes have tended to receive much less attention, says Jordi Casabona, director of the Centre for Epidemiological HIV/AIDS Studies (Catalan Health Department, Barcelona) who with Jose Maria Gatell of the Infectious Disease Unit, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, will cochair the Barcelona conference. This was understandable, Casabona says, because at the time AIDS was a new disease and little was known about the causal virus. But as the epidemic has grown and evolved, it has become increasingly clear that a purely “biomedical” approach will not be enough. “In Western countries, for example, the focus of AIDS research has been primarily on drug treatments”, he says. “We now have an idea of what drugs can achieve—that they can dramatically alter the course of the disease and prolong life—but we also know they will not end the epidemic.” To do this will require effective policies and programmes that promote science-based prevention and provide affordable access to effective treatments, he says. The challenge is to translate what we know into effective action, he says, for good science is of little use without good programmes and policies. “Often there is a disconnect between what we know works and policy”, he notes. “Laws that prevent needle exchange programmes are a good example of this. Needle exchange is restricted because of cultural and political concerns, despite the scientific evidence that it works.” Thus, to try to forge closer ties between scientists and the community, the conference organisers have created the “Barcelona framework”, which organises the conference programme around two main components: one, dedicated to “science” and
I
them into practice, says the track’s cochair Ron Valdiserri, deputy director of the National Centre for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention. “For example, how do you take a successful study that involved a few hundred people and translate its findings into a programme involving thousands, even tens of thousands of people”, Valdiserri says. The track’s sessions will include a mix of presentations of peer-reviewed abstracts, talks by invited speakers, as well as debates and group discussions. The focus will be on how to design, implement, and sustain effective programmes. The last new track, advocacy and policy, will focus on how to create a political, social, and cultural climate that will help people fighting HIV/AIDS succeed. The sessions will address such issues as the mobilisation of community resources, priority setting and resource allocation, trade and intellectual property rights, and how to empower marginalised groups such as sex workers, sexual minorities, and refugees. “In my mind, policy and advocacy underlies everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen in response to HIV/AIDS, but we have never addressed it before in a coherent way”, says track co-chair Margaret Duckett. The goal of bridging sessions will be to bring people from all the tracks together to discuss common concerns. “My own personal view is that the real challenge for the Barcelona conference is the bridging sessions”, says Luis Guerra Romero, a technical adviser to the Secretary of the Spanish National Plan on AIDS and an advocacy and policy track co-chair. One such session might be entitled “Vertical transmission: from molecules to programmes”, he says, and would include presentations on the biology and epidemiology of mother-to-child HIV transmission, the efficacy and effectiveness of drug treatment, and community support and advocacy for HIV testing, counselling, and treatment in pregnancy. The strength of the Barcelona meeting will be its scientific rigour and its multisectorial approach says Casabona. “As a public health problem, the fight against AIDS needs both of them.” (More information is available at www.aids2002.com. The deadline is Jan 14 for abstracts on paper or disk, Jan 21 for online submissions, and June 1 for late-breaking reports.) Michael McCarthy
THE LANCET • Vol 359 • January 5, 2002 • www.thelancet.com
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.
Organisers expand scope of 2002 AIDS meeting
52
one dedicated to “action” with bridging sessions where scientists and those working in programmes and policy can meet and discuss the issues. Casabona says the goal of the framework is to maintain the scientific quality of the meeting, which will continue
Rights were not granted to include this image in electronic media. Please refer to the printed journal. Science in action
to have tracks featuring presentations of new work by the world’s top researchers in the basic, clinical, and public-health sciences, but also to provide a high-profile venue where programme and policy issues can be presented and discussed. In addition to the new format, the conference will have three new tracks: “Prevention Science”, “Interventions and Program Implementation”, and “Advocacy and Policy”. The prevention science track will be added to the science component. In past meetings, the conferences had no special venue for prevention research, Casabona says, and, as a result, good papers on prevention were often scattered throughout the meeting diluting their effect. There was also a feeling that prevention research was less scientific than clinical studies. This perception is untrue, Casabona says, pointing to a growing body of prevention research that has been conducted as rigorously as are clinical trials of drugs. The prevention science track will bring together researchers in all areas of the field, from scientists working on new vaccines and microbicides to field workers conducting behavioural work in the community. “You can’t separate biological and non-biological interventions, because they must be used together”, Casabona says. “To prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, for example, you need to give antiretrovirals to infected pregnant women, but you also need to increase testing coverage and primary prevention among young women.” The interventions and programme implementation track, which will be part of the second “action” component of the conference, will focus on how to take research findings and put
Panos Pictures
n an effort to close what they feel is a serious gap between AIDS scientists and people working on the ground in the fight against the worldwide HIV epidemic, organisers of this summer’s XIV International AIDS Conference have reformatted the meeting to give greater prominence to prevention, implementation, and policy. The biannual conferences have become perhaps the most influential meetings in the area, and the July 7–12 meeting, which will be held in Barcelona, Spain, is expected to draw more than 15 000 scientists, clinicians, activists, and journalists from around the world. Past conferences have placed a heavy emphasis on biomedical research, while prevention and fieldbased programmes have tended to receive much less attention, says Jordi Casabona, director of the Centre for Epidemiological HIV/AIDS Studies (Catalan Health Department, Barcelona) who with Jose Maria Gatell of the Infectious Disease Unit, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, will cochair the Barcelona conference. This was understandable, Casabona says, because at the time AIDS was a new disease and little was known about the causal virus. But as the epidemic has grown and evolved, it has become increasingly clear that a purely “biomedical” approach will not be enough. “In Western countries, for example, the focus of AIDS research has been primarily on drug treatments”, he says. “We now have an idea of what drugs can achieve—that they can dramatically alter the course of the disease and prolong life—but we also know they will not end the epidemic.” To do this will require effective policies and programmes that promote science-based prevention and provide affordable access to effective treatments, he says. The challenge is to translate what we know into effective action, he says, for good science is of little use without good programmes and policies. “Often there is a disconnect between what we know works and policy”, he notes. “Laws that prevent needle exchange programmes are a good example of this. Needle exchange is restricted because of cultural and political concerns, despite the scientific evidence that it works.” Thus, to try to forge closer ties between scientists and the community, the conference organisers have created the “Barcelona framework”, which organises the conference programme around two main components: one, dedicated to “science” and
I
them into practice, says the track’s cochair Ron Valdiserri, deputy director of the National Centre for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention. “For example, how do you take a successful study that involved a few hundred people and translate its findings into a programme involving thousands, even tens of thousands of people”, Valdiserri says. The track’s sessions will include a mix of presentations of peer-reviewed abstracts, talks by invited speakers, as well as debates and group discussions. The focus will be on how to design, implement, and sustain effective programmes. The last new track, advocacy and policy, will focus on how to create a political, social, and cultural climate that will help people fighting HIV/AIDS succeed. The sessions will address such issues as the mobilisation of community resources, priority setting and resource allocation, trade and intellectual property rights, and how to empower marginalised groups such as sex workers, sexual minorities, and refugees. “In my mind, policy and advocacy underlies everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen in response to HIV/AIDS, but we have never addressed it before in a coherent way”, says track co-chair Margaret Duckett. The goal of bridging sessions will be to bring people from all the tracks together to discuss common concerns. “My own personal view is that the real challenge for the Barcelona conference is the bridging sessions”, says Luis Guerra Romero, a technical adviser to the Secretary of the Spanish National Plan on AIDS and an advocacy and policy track co-chair. One such session might be entitled “Vertical transmission: from molecules to programmes”, he says, and would include presentations on the biology and epidemiology of mother-to-child HIV transmission, the efficacy and effectiveness of drug treatment, and community support and advocacy for HIV testing, counselling, and treatment in pregnancy. The strength of the Barcelona meeting will be its scientific rigour and its multisectorial approach says Casabona. “As a public health problem, the fight against AIDS needs both of them.” (More information is available at www.aids2002.com. The deadline is Jan 14 for abstracts on paper or disk, Jan 21 for online submissions, and June 1 for late-breaking reports.) Michael McCarthy
THE LANCET • Vol 359 • January 5, 2002 • www.thelancet.com
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.