second and third from left are Coordinator of TCI Mrs. Cherylann Jones with Nurse Nora Tyndall also of TCI surrounded by Miss Claudette Francis of Alliance International and Jones P. Madeira of CAREC at the XVI International HIV/AIDS Conference.

The XV1 International was held in Toronto Canada this year from August 13 -18, 2006 under the theme ‘Time to Deliver’. This conference marked the 25th year of existence of what we now know as HIV/AIDS. It is amazing to realize that HIV is as old or even older as many of the young people that were involved in the conference. Alicia Keyes R&B super star who was present at the opening could attest to that as she noted that the epidemic is as old as she is.

This biennial conference theme stressed the urgency for all stakeholders in the fight, governments, civil society, drug companies, donor agencies and step up their commitment and deliver on promises the world over especially in resource poor countries and communities. The conference welcomed over 27000 participants from all over the world. Among them were scientist, researchers, volunteers, counselors, members of government and non-governmental organizations in fact thousands who are involved in the fight to prevent the spread of HIV. In these thousands were eight persons from the Turks and Caicos Islands representing government, non-government and youth organizations.

It was evident over the five days of the conference that there has been many different levels of response to this problem and different levels of success since the epidemic began.

In the end the most powerful statement for me was that all the money in the world will not be able to defeat HIV/AIDS unless great strides are made in preventing new infections that can only be achieved by giving women and other risk groups the ability to protect themselves. (Bill and Melinda Gates) The challenge is getting the money to where the problem is. Despite the treatment we have to work harder at preventing new infections. Bill and Melinda Gates made a very strong showing at the conference. They called on the scientific world to accelerate research into microbicides- drugs that will block the virus from entering and infecting a person, and oral drugs that will prevent acquisition of HIV. Such measures are particularly important because they would benefit women who now have to rely on men to agree to abstinence or condom use.

Known for being a meeting that mixes science with politics, this meeting was no exception. At the opening ceremony the Canadian Primer was slammed left, right and center for his slighting of the meeting. Indeed one of the great missing pieces at the conference has been political leadership. However many feel that while it is important to have political leadership, there needs to be leaders of all kinds and at all levels, leaders in hospitals, homes, youth groups, communities, churches and indeed all of civil society.

It was in the vein of missing leadership that the South African government was also chided for failing to take strong measures to stem the spread of HIV in that country. In fact at a plenary presentation the Minister of Health was called on to resign her post. However while many believe that more could be done, it was noted that that country had the most persons on HIV medication and that they had made considerable progress in ensuring access to drugs. The message from South Africa seemed very conflicting as any visitor to their booth would agree, the South African booth included lemons, garlic and beets as part of its recommended treatment for HIV, the South African Health Minister has long touted salad, vitamins and assorted quack cures over antiretroviral drugs which she has called toxic.
In the end though Dr. Peter Piot the executive director executive director of UNAIDS summed up that we are at a time of great hope and opportunity. But we have to keep HIV high on the political agenda and highly visible. Credible plans need to be given adequate funding; we have to make the money work. This means ensuring that the money is working for those who are most vulnerable. This includes the poor, women, immigrant or mobile populations, orphans and so on.

To get real success we must accelerate and sustain scientific innovation in developing mirobicides, next generation drugs and vaccines. We have to begin addressing the drivers of the epidemic, especially homophobia, HIV related stigma, inequality and the low status of women and migrant populations. This sentiment was echoed by members of the Caribbean delegation at a special meeting where the region was called to begin to look at these issues and face them head on.

We have to spend the energy on fighting the epidemic not fighting each other. One of the main lesions that we have learnt over the past few years is that when we are united we win. When we are divided AIDS wins.

During the next two weeks I hope to address other important issues that came out of the XV1 International AIDS Conference.