TREAT Asia Taking Active Role at XVII International AIDS Conference

July 2008—TREAT Asia will be involved in a broad range of activities during the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, 3-8 August. The conference, expected to attract 25,000 attendees, is organized around the theme of “Universal Action Now,” underlining the ongoing urgency of the worldwide response to HIV/AIDS.

TREAT Asia’s activities will begin with a symposium on 4 August detailing a project to evaluate the emergence of HIV drug resistance in Asia and Africa, run jointly by TREAT Asia, the PharmAccess Foundation, and AIDS Fonds. The next day, 5 August, Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, chair of TREAT Asia’s steering committee, will be among the conference’s plenary speakers.

A number of posters describing TREAT Asia research findings and other projects will also be presented. On 4 August, TREAT Asia will present a poster titled “Measures of country and site resourcing predict virologic suppression, immunologic response and disease progression in the TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database,” followed on 5 August by one titled “Deferred modification of antiretroviral regimen following treatment failure in Asia: Results from the TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database.” The third presentation, “A quality assessment scheme to standardize the outcome of HIV genotypic resistance testing in a group of Asian laboratories,” will be made on 6 August.

Representatives of the Purple Sky Network, a TREAT Asia-coordinated association of more than 80 groups providing HIV prevention services for MSM in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, will also present two posters. The first, titled “The Purple Sky Network: A Regional Partnership Approach to the HIV Epidemic Among MSM,” will be presented on Monday 4 August. The second, an MSM peer reference manual titled “Developing Standardized Guidelines on Knowledge, Attitude, and Skills of Peer/Outreach Workers Involved in HIV Prevention for MSM in Southeast Asia,” will be presented on 7 August.

TREAT Asia and its parent organization, amfAR, will also be involved in a pre-conference event, scheduled 1-2 August. Entitled “The Invisible Men: Gay Men and Other MSM in the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” the event is organized by the Global Forum on MSM & HIV and co-sponsored by amfAR, UNAIDS, AIDS Fonds, and other groups. Presenters will include Jack Arayawongchai, TREAT Asia’s MSM program coordinator and regional coordinator of the Purple Sky Network, who will discuss the network’s impact on strengthening regional MSM advocacy on 1 August.