The world’s largest gathering on HIV/AIDS will be held in July in Melbourne, Australia. The theme of the 20th International AIDS Conference – also known as AIDS 2014 – is Nobody Left Behind. Organizers have issued the Melbourne Declaration.
Listen to De Capua report on Melbourne Declaration
Since the AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2000, conference organizers have released declarations several months prior to the event.
Chris Beyrer, professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and president-elect of the International AIDS Society, said there are several reasons why declarations are issued.
“Certainly, the first is, as in the case with the Durban Declaration, that there are often compelling issues facing the field and facing everyone living with HIV and people working on HIV, that really demand international attention. So the conference provides a platform, a spotlight on the global epidemic. And so we use the conference declarations to really highlight those issues,” he said.
Joe DeCapua
VOA News
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