Can anyone besides me not believe that it’s been two years since AIDS 2008 in Mexico City? Alas, so much has changed in that time. More people have contracted HIV, and a good amount of them are youth under 30. Crucial funding is being cut for imperative programmes aimed at keeping people alive.
Yesterday, in the United States; President Obama announced his ‘new’ HIV/AIDS strategy. "Fighting HIV/AIDS in America and around the world will require more than just fighting the virus," President Obama said, according to the Associated Press. "It will require a broader effort to make life more just and equitable." Obama spoke at a White House reception honouring people who work on HIV/AIDS issues. There is very little that qualifies this as new in this announcement. He declared his intentions to cut the rate of new infections by 25% over the next five years... I’m sorry, how exactly is this a new goal? He wants to target three areas: reducing the number of people who become infected with HIV, increasing the access to care and improving health outcomes for people living with HIC, and reducing HIV-related health. With no more funding being allocated towards fighting HIV/AIDS how will be be able to fund these initiates to cut a quarter of new HIV infections? President Obama’s allegiance to the fight against AIDS has been lacklustre, said a leading HIV/AIDS activist from Los Angeles Micheal Weinstein. At this point we need to adapt and reform our ideas and strategies that are based off of the breaking news that are coming from ground approaches. Maybe President Obama should take in a session or two at the Youth Pre-Conference to understand what needs to be done on the ground level.

Segwaying into the the first day of the Youth Pre-Conference. Close to 200 youth from around the world have gathered to share knowledge, network and learn from one another. This year this we started off by attending regional meetings, this allowed delegates from similar area’s gather and meet one another and create a stronger network from their region to carry into the pre-conference and main conference. The conversations varied from what groups are working on to what different nationalities are experiencing on the ground level. Following the networking meetings participants attended the opening session that was hosted by the Vienna Youth Force chair Ricardo and Fatima. After the opening, the participants went into the break out sessions that ranged from introduction and intermediate HIV, Harm reduction, Peer education.
I was only able to attend one of the sessions today because of prior engagements regarding the HIV Young Leaders Fund; but I attended the What does Treatment mean for Young People presented by a representative from the Global Network of people living with HIV/AIDS. The session was discussing the various theories proposed for treatment vs. prevention. How treatment FOR prevention was different was prevention; and how proven methods of using ART’s to prevent transmission (preventing mother-to-child transmission , Post Exposure prophylactics, and possibly Pre-exposure profiles) have been tossed around as a theory to prevent transmission on a greater population. The session directed questions on sustainability and ethically of possibly keeping a large group of people on ART, if countries could test for HIV without infringing on the population’s human rights, if keeping an entire population on consistent ART’s would be economical and what kind of medical side effects it would cause. The session also brought up the language that is used in these campaigns and clinical trials. It was realized that some of the wording that goes along with combating the epidemic further marginalizes and discriminates against people living with HIV. Using terms like ‘ending AIDS, or Eradicating AIDS’ could lead someone living with HIV to feel discriminated against.
Thursday July 15th, 2010 will focus on funding and and advocating during the conference.

Links:

President Obama’s Press Statement on new National AIDS Strategy: July 14th, 2010:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/07/13/hiv.strategy/?hpt=T2

The HIV Young Leaders Fund
http://www.hivyoungleadersfund.org/

Global Network of People Living with HIV
http://www.gnpplus.net/