Linda-Gail Bekker opens International AIDS Society 2017 Symposium

The International AIDS Society (IAS) Symposium 2017 on HIV Science was held in Paris, co-chaired by Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, President of the IAS and deputy Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation (DTHF) and Centre based in the IDM.  

In opening the IAS 2017 Professor Bekker commented that "New prevention options are helping us really move forward in reducing transmission," and the latest prevention tools were generating a lot of buzz. HIV research funding is of concern. Bekker insisted in her opening speech that any cuts to funding would push progress back and must be avoided. “The battle is half won and we cannot afford to lose the headway that has been made.”

As well as her presence in the IAS arena in Paris, Professor Bekker was interviewed by CNN, and she featured in articles in the major USA newspapers around the event.

A number of representatives from the DTHF presented their cutting-edge research. Katherine Gill spoke about the HIV prevention pill, PreExposure Prophylaxis or PrEP, which has been tested for the first time in adolescents in an African context and found to be safe over a twelve-month programme. She researched this in the 'PlusPills' study at DTHF. With focused and funded intervention, the drug Truvada (PrEP) can prevent new HIV infections. Lulu Nair, who presented the rationale for a PrEP and dapivirine vaginal ring study among young African women aged 16-21 years (The REACH study). The vaginal ring releases an antiretroviral over a period of one month. Additionally, the results from a short-term immunisation trial were well-received. The immunisation is achieved from a drip that contains an infusion of HIV antibodies. There is hope that this may lead to the use of an infusion injection every two months instead of a daily HIV prevention pill. Dr Millicent Atujuna presented her research on how family household structures can affect whether adolescents take the HIV-prevention drug, PrEP. She also presented the results from a prototype questionnaire for women about their PrEP-use. The process took a questionnaire and examined how participants understood the questions, how the translations between English and isiXhosa were understood and how to frame questions for good-quality data.

IAS Opening address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpxM96HCoU0

IAS closing rapporteurs, and address by Linda-Gail Bekker (from @1.29hrs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA0q1hXxg7c

Professor Linda-Gail Bekker
with her co-chair Dr Jean-François Delfraissy