Opening Plenary - AIDS 2012

Hillary Clinton addresses the conference.
© IAS/Ryan Rayburn - Commercialimage.net

The start of AIDS 2012 has been stimulating and thought-provoking. The opening plenary on Monday morning attracted many important speakers, the most well-known being US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. To a rapturous welcome she described the great strides that have been made in the global fight against HIV – highlighting the US' efforts both domestically and internationally.

As would be expected from any sitting politician, she highlighted progress made by her government in addressing HIV. She identified the recently up-held Affordable Care Act, which for the first time will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, as well as stop insurance companies from capping the amount in dollars that people receive. She also cited the new US National HIV Strategy.

Framework for country-level PrEP demonstration projects being developed

Now that there is evidence of the efficacy of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) we need to determine the best way to deliver PrEP in the 'real world' and to gather evidence of its effectiveness from countries where it is rolled out. At a meeting organised by the World Health Organisation and attended by the UNAIDS, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), US government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the investigators of the PrEP studies, participants started developing a country-level protocol development framework for PrEP demonstration projects.

Going social

Social media & Web 2.0 are now such a ‘given’ in health promotion and HIV prevention work that having a session dedicated to social media at a conference almost becomes redundant. The recent AFAO/NAPWA Gay Men’s Health Promotion Conference was no exception, with social media and the web ubiquitous throughout the program.

A number of presentations – such as Carlos Sepulvada’s Down an’ dirty presentation, or Nadine Toussaint’s 1 Community – described how interactive websites, Facebook, and other online strategies contributed to community engagement and effective promotion of key messages. Often, as in the case of the 1 Community anti-stigma campaign, the online component was carefully integrated with offline activities.

Impressions from AFAO’s National Gay Men’s HIV Health Promotion Conference

"Liberty leading the People" by Eugène Delacroix,
was a popular trigger for musings on the meanings
of  the prevention 'revolution' - she featured on the slides
of four presenters. 

These are some impressions from AFAO’s National Gay Men’s HIV Health Promotion Conference held late May. The conference was a place for many discussions. The development of  new HIV prevention options that can be added to our existing tools  was described as a 'revolution' by some, and as an 'evolution' by others. Whether it is thought of as a revolution or an evolution, several major ways to intensify HIV prevention were discussed throughout the conference. 

Health Promotion Conference Resolutions

The following resolutions were passed unanimously at the closing session of the conference.
Resolution on the breakdown of the Queensland HIV Partnership Response
Resolution on HIV Treatments Access
Resolution on HIV Testing Access

Sustaining the HIV response

Speakers at the opening sessions of AFAO's Gay Men's HIV Health Promotion Conference this morning reiterated the value and effectiveness of Australia's partnership approach to HIV prevention.

Healthy Communities (QAHC) to be defunded

Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg announced on Sunday that all Queensland Health funding to the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC) will cease within three months.

Healthy Communities, an AFAO member, currently receives $2.6 million in grants from Queensland Health to help combat HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in the gay community, as well as running programs for other health issues, such as reducing smoking and drug use.