October 2002  

The Population Council at the XIV International AIDS Conference
in Barcelona

The XIV International AIDS Conference, held in Barcelona from July 7 to 12, 2002, brought together more than 17,000 of the world’s top scientists, community leaders, policymakers, and people living with HIV. The largest and most important of the international meetings devoted to AIDS, this conference, occurring every two years, provides the worldwide AIDS community with a forum to discuss all aspects of the epidemic, including scientific research, policy, and community action. Conference participants exchange information, make the case for increased AIDS spending, and discuss how to mobilize communities and governments to respond to the crisis.

“The conference is a culmination of what is happening in the AIDS field,” said Naomi Rutenberg, senior program associate with the Council’s Horizons program, a USAID-funded project carried out by the Population Council and several other organizations. “It is important for building networks and consensus on how to move forward.”

The Population Council, one of the conference’s 25 “supporting institutions,” contributed on many levels to this year’s wide-ranging program. Andrew Fisher, the director of the Council’s Horizons program; Samuel Kalibala, a program associate at the Council’s office in Kenya; and Purnima Mane, a Council vice president and director of its International Programs Division, were involved in the planning of the conference. Council staff members and collaborators presented the latest findings on the organization’s AIDS-related research at more than 80 technical sessions. They hosted two satellite meetings, one on the Microbicides Basic Science Network and another titled “Evaluating the Economics of HIV/AIDS Interventions.”

Laelia Zoe Gilborn of the Council’s Horizons program, who also served as a rapporteur for conference sessions on interventions and program implementation, described a program in Uganda that assists HIV-positive parents in planning for their children’s futures. Naomi Rutenberg discussed issues related to mother-to-child transmission of HIV and the perception among adolescents in South Africa of their risks of contracting the disease. Horizons collaborator Ann McCauley (International Center for Research on Women) reported on how school programs could increase condom use, citing successful programs in Mexico and Thailand.

The Population Council’s work on microbicides was the topic of several presentations and scientific posters. Council scientists David Phillips and Melissa Pope presented their research at the meeting on the Microbicides Basic Science Network, a group of organizations that focuses on developing HIV-prevention technologies.

The Council’s participation in the biennial international AIDS conference is an important way to disseminate its research to scientists, policymakers, community leaders, and people living with HIV. In addition to information provided during oral presentations and poster sessions, hundreds of publications and 3,500 CD-ROMs on the Council’s HIV/AIDS work were distributed to more than 4,000 visitors during the six-day conference.

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