AIDS 2012 Conference | Strategy Towards an HIV Cure

Landmark Global Scientific Strategy to be launched in Washington D.C. Thursday, July 19 ahead of the XIX International AIDS Conference

By Melanie Nathan, June 28, 2012.

Wednesday 27 June 2012, (Geneva, Switzerland; Washington D.C. USA)–The Global Scientific Strategy Towards an HIV Cure,developed by some of the world’s leading HIV/AIDS clinicians and researchers, will be launched to media ahead of a key scientific symposium (July 20-21) to discuss the Strategy. The media launch and symposium are closely linked to the programme of the XIX International AIDS Conference, which will be held Sunday July 22 through to Friday July 27, in Washington, D.C.

An international working group of scientists has developed a Global Scientific Strategy Towards an HIV Cure under the auspices of the International AIDS Society (IAS), the world’s leading independent association of HIV professionals. The strategy aims to build a global consensus on the state of research in the HIV reservoirs field and define a roadmap of scientific priorities that must be addressed by future research to tackle HIV persistence in patients on antiretroviral therapy.

In light of the recent resurgence of interest and optimism on prospects of a cure for HIV – either a sterilizing one or a functional one – the IAS and its partners – the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis, the United States National Institutes of Health, Sidaction and the Treatment Action Group are committed to seizing the momentum and demonstrating leadership in advocating for increased investment in HIV cure research and more concerted efforts to advance the science.

 What: Towards an HIV Cure Global Scientific Strategy Media Launch

When: Thursday, July 19 10.30-11.45 a.m. EST

Where: Kaiser Family Foundation, Barbara Jordan Conference Center, 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005

Speakers:

Chair: Bertrand Audoin, Executive Director, the International AIDS Society, Geneva, Switzerland

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and President-elect of the International AIDS Society, Paris, France

Steven Deeks, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, USA

Kevin Frost, Executive Director, the Foundation for AIDS Research, Washington D.C., USA

Mark Harrington, Executive Director, Treatment Action Group, New York, USA

Sharon Lewin, the Burnet Institute and Co- Chair,AIDS 2014, Melbourne, Australia

About the international AIDS Society

The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the world’s leading independent association of HIV professionals, with over 16,000 members from more than 196 countries working at all levels of the global response to HIV. Our members include researchers from all disciplines, clinicians, public health and community practitioners on the frontlines of the epidemic, as well as policy and programme planners. The IAS is the custodian of the biennial International AIDS Conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C., in July 2012, and lead organizer of the IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention.

www.iasociety.org | www.aids2012.org

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