International Aids Conference

Thousands of scientists, health experts, politicians, philanthropists and civil society representatives have gathered at the International AIDS Conference, which started yesterday in Durban, South Africa. The conference, which returns 20 years since it was last hosted in the coastal city, aims to advance knowledge about HIV and to build innovative partnerships to strengthen global response to the epidemic. Yesterday UN General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon called for this year’s gathering to mark the end of the commitment to a new era of a fast tracked response. However yesterday, about five thousand people marched outside the International Convention Centre in Durban, where the conference is being held. The Treatment Action Campaign, as one of the civil organisations involved in the march, highlighted that there was a huge disconnect between promises made and the realities on the ground.

Now joining us on the line we have:

• Professor Helen Rees is Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg,

• Professor Geoffrey Setswe,Deputy Executive Director HIV/AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections & TB Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

• AyandaYawa, Treatment Action Campaign General Secretary

Dr Nothemba (Nono) Simelela - Currently the Advisor to the Deputy President on HIV, TB and Sexually Transmitted Infections (She was also the Chair of the 7th South African AIDS Conference hosted in Durban June 2015)