AIDS 2010 in Vienna This Summer

Organizers of the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) have announced that former president Bill Clinton and South African health minister Aaron Motsoaledi will be among 19 high-level speakers who will address an estimated 25,000 conference attendees in Vienna this summer. AIDS 2010 will take place from July 18-23 under the theme 'Rights Here, Right Now.' President Clinton will deliver keynote remarks on July 19. Minister Motsoaledi's plenary presentation is on July 20. "We are delighted to have secured these two high-level keynote speakers at this crucial time in the global response to HIV," said AIDS 2010 chair Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society and director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, Canada. "Universal access is a commitment wealthy nations made to Africa and to millions of people living in low- and middle-income countries in 2005, and those of us assembling in Vienna will not watch silently as the financial resources needed to make good on that promise falter," Montaner added. The theme of AIDS 2010, 'Rights Here, Right Now,' was selected by organizers to emphasize the critical connection between human rights and HIV. Human rights will also be the focus of a march and rally in Vienna on July 20 and will include remarks and a performance by singer-songwriter and activist Annie Lennox. "Through several plenary presentations focusing on human rights as well as others on violence against women and girls, incarceration, drug policy and harm reduction, and positive health, dignity and prevention, we will demonstrate how stigma and discrimination are undermining public health," said AIDS 2010 local cochair Brigitte Schmied, president of the Austrian AIDS Society. "Equally important, we will show what is being done to address these barriers in all regions of the world." The AIDS 2010 Opening Session on July 18 will feature welcoming remarks, three plenary presentations on the state of the epidemic and a speech by Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS executive director Michel Sidib'. The full conference program will be available through the conference website and significant parts of the program, including webcasts of key sessions, speeches, slide presentations, abstracts, digital posters, session-specific and daily rapporteur reports, as well as workshop handouts and audio recordings, will also be online during the conference. The following plenary speeches will set the stage each day: Sunday, July 18 (as part of the Opening Session) > Yves Souteyrand (France, World Health Organization), 'State of the Epidemic: Human Rights and Epidemiology' > Paula Akugizibwe (Rwanda, AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa), 'State of the Epidemic: Human Rights and the Response' > Sharon Lewin (Australia, Monash University), 'State of the Epidemic: Towards a Cure' Monday, July 19 > Vuyiseka Dubula (South Africa, Treatment Action Campaign), 'Positive Health, Dignity, and Prevention' > Anya Sarang (Russia, Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice), 'HIV, Drug Policy, and Harm Reduction' > President Bill Clinton (United States, William J. Clinton Foundation) Tuesday, July 20 > Anthony Fauci (United States, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), 'New Concepts in HIV/AIDS Pathogenesis: Implications for Interventions' > Everjoice Win (Zimbabwe, ActionAid International), 'Violence Against Women and Girls' > Aaron Motsoaledi, (South Africa, Ministry of Health) Wednesday, July 21 > Bernard Hirschel (Switzerland, Infectious Diseases Service Geneva University Hospitals), 'Anti-HIV Drugs for Prevention' > Ellen 't Hoen (The Netherlands, UNITAID), 'Access to Affordable and High-Quality Medicines' > James Hakim (Zimbabwe, University of Zimbabwe), 'ART Advances -- Into the Next Decade' Thursday, July 22 > Carlos Caceres (Peru, Institute of Studies in Health, Sexuality and Human Development), 'Combination HIV Prevention: What's New?' > Elaine Abrams (United States, International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, Mailman School of Public Health), 'Vertical Transmission' > Meena Seshu (India, Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha), Jonathan Mann Memorial Lecture: 'Human Rights' Friday, July 23 > Dmytro Shermebey (Ukraine, All-Ukrainian Network of PLHA) and Manfred Nowak (Austria, University of Vienna, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights), 'HIV and Incarceration: Prisons and Detention' > Elizabeth Gwyther (South Africa, Hospice and Palliative Care Association of South Africa) 'Care and Support: Integral to Comprehensive Care' > David Thomas (United States, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine), 'Hepatitis C and HIV Coinfection' AIDS 2010 is convened by the International AIDS Society, the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals, in partnership with a number of international, regional, and local partners.