(Cape Town, South Africa) – The world’s largest open conference on HIV/AIDS, the 5th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2009) took place in Cape Town, South Africa. Dr Julio Montaner, Director of the BC Centre for Excellence and President of the IAS, presented the welcoming remarks at the opening ceremony. The following is an excerpt of a transcript of his speech.
Dear colleagues, friends, distinguished guests; colegas, amigos, y distinguidos invitados. It is my privilege today to welcome you to Cape Town as we formally open the proceedings of the 5th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention, IAS 2009. Wamkelekile, bienvenidos, welcome.
The selection of Cape Town as the host city of IAS 2009 represents a determined attempt by the governing council of the International AIDS Society to focus our international attention on the epicenter of the HIV pandemic. In fact, in many ways, IAS 2009 is a follow up to the 13th International AIDS Conference, which was held in Durban in the year 2000. That meeting is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of the pandemic.
The Durban conference opened the door to the role of antiretroviral therapy that Jerry referred to. That was something that, until then, many believed was just not possible. Since Durban, we have seen dramatic progress in access to treatment, care, and prevention in resource-limited settings. We have gone from virtually no access to antiretroviral therapy to well over three million people on antiretroviral therapy in low- and middle-income countries.
Despite such progress, we must not be complacent. Major concerns remain. The world today faces an unprecedented global economic downturn. This represents an immediate threat to the progress we have witnessed over the last decade. Already we are hearing warnings about the sustainability of the roll-out of antiretroviral therapy. A retrenchment now would be catastrophic for the nearly four million people who are already on treatment in resource-limited settings, not to mention the six to seven million that are waiting for antiretroviral therapy based on the critical threshold of 200 CD4s. And yet, remember, this unmet need would be substantially higher if the more appropriate and clinically sound CD4-count threshold of 350 was to be adopted universally – something that the IAS has been recommending for some time.
All of this is taking place against the backdrop of an ever-widening gap in terms of implementation. There is a gap between evidence and practice. We know what needs to be done, yet implementation founders, costing thousands of lives each day. Thousands of fully preventable deaths – that is not acceptable.
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Stephen Lewis, former United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, delivered a keynote address during the opening ceremonies. The following is an excerpt.
No one should underestimate the power and influence of science when it decides to take a stand. The two co-chairs of this conference are striking examples, amongst many, of the extraordinary impact scientists can have. And never has the exercise of power and influence been more imperative than at this moment in the fight against the AIDS pandemic. Your individual and collective voices are needed. Sure, you have the technological and laboratory acumen, you know about vaccines and microbicides and triple-combination therapy and viral loads and CD4 counts and pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis – the entire panoply of sophisticated scientific discovery and intervention.
And that’s your work, and it’s of inestimable value. We need you to unravel the secrets of the science, to make all of that elusive and mysterious information accessible to the untutored rest of us. But we need the scientific community as well to speak clearly and unequivocally, boldly and evocatively to the power brokers of this world, telling them of the risks and the benefits and what will happen if they make the wrong choices.