The XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) brought together more than 23,000 delegates in science, community, and leadership fields from 183 countries to present the latest scientific findings on HIV/AIDS and discuss new ways to confront the global epidemic. Researchers and staff from ICAP at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health contributed to a multitude of conference proceedings.
ICAP hosted the fourth annual “HIV and Health Systems” pre-conference meeting, in partnership with the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the International AIDS Society, the World Bank, UNICEF, the National Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organization. This year’s meeting, HIV AND HEALTH SYSTEMS: STRENGTHENING HEALTH SYSTEMS FOR AN AIDS-FREE GENERATION, focused on the health systems barriers to HIV prevention and treatment scale-up, with close attention to the information needs of policy makers and implementers. The pre-meeting featured keynote presentations from Ambassador Eric Goosby, United States Global AIDS Coordinator, and J. Steven Morrison, director of the Center on Global Health at the Center for Strategic International Studies. The Honorable Benedict Xaba, Minister of Health in Swaziland, and Kesetebirhan Admasu, State Minister for Health in Ethiopia, were also among the high-level officials that presented at the meeting.
At ICAP’s special satellite session, “Nursing and Midwifery: Strengthening a Critical Component of the Health Workforce,” a diverse panel of experts discussed the critical need for strengthening nursing and midwifery professions throughout the world, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The session was moderated by Wafaa El-Sadr and panelists included Deborah Von Zinkernagel, principal deputy global AIDS coordinator, Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator; Deborah Parham Hopson, associate administrator for HIV/AIDS, Health Resources and Services Administration, US Department of Health and Human Service; Address Malata, principal at the Kamuzu School of Nursing at the University of Malawi; and Jennifer Dohrn, program director of the ICAP Nurse Capacity Initiative.
Another well-attended event was the conference workshop, “Not Big Children, Not Little Adults: A Training of Trainers on Comprehensive Adolescent-Friendly HIV Services,” also hosted by ICAP. At this workshop, essential components of adolescent-friendly HIV services were discussed, using an ICAP-developed curriculum to train multidisciplinary health workers on comprehensive adolescent HIV care.
Faculty and staff from ICAP and the Mailman School of Public Health also participated in more than 25 oral and poster presentations. Visit AIDS 2012 for additional recaps.
