Advancing Evidence & Equity: Report on The XVIII International AIDS Conference (AidS 2010)

the XVIII International aIDS Conference (aIDS 2010) took place during a pivotal year for the global health and development field, coinciding with the 2010 deadline world leaders set for achieving universal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment to all in need. occurring just after the Group of eight (G8) and Group of 20 (G20) summits in Canada 1and in advance of the united nations (un) Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit and Global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria’s third replenishment, AIDS 2010 was an ideal opportunity to examine scientific and programmatic evidence demonstrating how HIV investments are reaping significant dividends while also contributing to a number of related global health and development goals. the biennial event (see sidebar : aIDS 2010 statistics) , which garnered significant media attention, was also an opportunity to remind world leaders and the general public of the need for continued attention to aIDS as other global priorities continue to emerge.

AIDS 20 0 statistics
• 19,300 participants, including:
• 16,012 delegates
• 1,218 participants from eastern europe and
Central asia
• 848 scholarship recipients
• 1,276 media
• 770 volunteers
• 197 countries represented
Speakers used the conference theme, Rights Here, Right Now, to illustrate the gap between rhetoric and reality on human rights in the global response to aIDS and to document the extent to which unfulfilled human rights commitments contribute to HIV transmission and inhibit access to evidencebased HIV interventions.
With 248 sessions to choose from, AIDS 2010 participants examined the impact of the epidemic globally and regionally. The location of the conference in Vienna, austria, also allowed for an expanded focus on eastern europe and Central Asia (eeCa) , the region where the epidemic is expanding most rapidly. this in turn helped spotlight a call for a more scientific approach to international drug policy. By the close of AIDS 2010, over 12,725 scientists and other supporters had signed the Vienna Declaration www.viennadeclaration.com and support continues to grow, with over 17,000 signatures collected as of 1 October 2010.

Download the PDF HERE