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U.S. Conference on AIDS Focuses on Treatment as Prevention, Impact of Stigma

Nearly 3000 participants gathered this week in Chicago for the 15th U.S. Conference on AIDS (USCA), an annual meeting sponsored by the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) focused on the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This year’s USCA theme was "Make Change Real: Unite. Speak. Act." Among the key topics discussed were HIV prevention for men who have sex with men -- including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) -- and how homophobia and stigma contribute to elevated HIV risk.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Jeffrey Crowley, outgoing Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, spoke at the opening plenary about implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Participants also discussed how the Affordable Care Act health insurance reform will impact people with HIV.

On Day 2, Calvin Cohen of the Community Research Initiative of New England and Phill Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute offered physician/researcher and advocate perspectives on the 30th anniversary of the epidemic.

On Day 3 Tony Mills of UCLA gave an overview of the prevention benefits of antiretroviral therapy, including lessons from the HPTN 052 trial and iPrEx, as well as a summary of recent changes to federal antiretroviral treatment guidelines. A luncheon on the final day featured Julio Montaner of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS discussing real-world experience with treatment as prevention in Vancouver.

The Department of Health and Human Services Aids.gov blog features highlights from each day of the meeting:

Highlights of Day 1: http://blog.aids.gov/2011/11/u-s-conference-on-aids-–-highlights-of-day-1.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+aids%2Fgov+%28Blog.AIDS.gov%29

Highlights of Day 2: http://blog.aids.gov/2011/11/u-s-conference-on-aids-–-highlights-of-day-2.html

Highlights of Day 3: http://blog.aids.gov/2011/11/u-s-conference-on-aids-–-highlights-of-day-3.html

Highlights of Day 4: http://blog.aids.gov/2011/11/u-s-conference-on-aids-–-highlights-of-the-final-day-2.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+aids%2Fgov+%28Blog.AIDS.gov%29

11/15/11

Sources

National Minority AIDS Council. 2011 United States Conference on AIDS -- November 10-13. http://www.nmac.org.

Department of Health and Human Services AIDS.gov. U.S. Conference on AIDS – Highlights of Day 1, Highlights of Day 2, Highlights of Day 3, Highlights of the Final Day. http://blog.aids.gov