Prevention is the real issue - Peter Roach @ Annual AIDS Conference, Vienna - 23/07/10

Today is the last day of the conference and people are beginning to leave. It is such a huge place that, even though there are still thousands here, it is starting to look quite empty.

Looking back over the last week of talks, sessions and presentations, it is clear that a lot of the scientific community have their eyes fixed firmly on treatment.

In fact they are going even further and suggesting treatment as prevention - treat someone with antiretroviral drugs and they are less likely to transmit the HIV virus.

I suppose it is human nature to want a cure – we all do. It is also natural to want to be able to treat the disease effectively, but we also need to focus on pure prevention – not treatment as prevention.

That is because we need to remember that treatment is already difficult to access for people in developing countries, so how are they going to access even more treatment to use preventatively and how will it be paid for in these times of economic uncertainty?

This focus on treatment is taking place at the same time as there are worrying reports of increased rates of HIV infection in Eastern Europe and Central Asia so it is important that we stop this in its tracks.

We already have an excellent method for preventing the transmission of HIV – I don’t mean microbicides, they are still far in the future – the method I’m talking about has no side effects and people don’t need to take drugs for it to work.

It is of course the condom. I have to declare an interest here. I am the Vice President of the Durex Network, the social arm of the global number one condom brand.  However, it is my honest view that we need to refocus the scientific community back to real prevention – condoms.

Condoms work. The difficulty is in making sure they are accessible and that people use them when they have them. There is a need to increase condom programming and this  needs to be backed this up with education campaigns.

For me, the most significant part of this year’s AIDS conference has been the Condomize campaign. Through hard work and creativity the campaign has brought home to all of the conference delegates – and these are all influential people in the world of HIV and AIDS - the need to bring the focus back to pure prevention and stop people getting the virus in the first place.

By Peter Roach, Vice President of the Durex Network at the AIDS Conference in Vienna.

I’ve got a lot of ground to cover today – there was plenty happening and lots of interesting sessions.
 
One area that attracted a lot of discussion in the scientific part of the conference was the subject of PreExposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), including the use of antiretroviral drugs on people who are not HIV positive.

Antiretrovials are currently used for people with HIV to reduce their viral load. But the point of the proposed use of PrEP is that it is used preventatively for people without the virus. There are all sorts of potential issues being raised about this - efficacy, safety, ethics, how to select the people to have the drugs – and it is bound to stimulate far more debate in the future.

There was also an interesting session on Eastern Europe and Central Asia which showed that, worryingly,  the incidence of HIV in the region is growing at a rate faster than in Sub Saharan Africa and 10 times greater than in Central and Western Europe. Heterosexual sex is the main mode of transmission and the countries with the highest rates of HIV infection are Estonia, Ukraine and Moldova.

Today I also heard from our young journalist, Alexis Martinez, who came to the Youth Conference last week from Mexico through funding from the youth advocacy group, YouAct. He says that he felt the key issues that most interested young people centred around human rights.

Alexis said: “One week before AIDS 2010 conference more than 300 young people gathered at the University of Vienna to make strategies, network, and be heard at AIDS 2010.

“The three advocacy messages for the AIDS conference are: Harm Reduction, Health Resources and Human Rights.

“Addressing the challenges associated with HIV and AIDS is an essential step in safeguarding the human rights of those living with and affected by the condition. Awareness is also a critical part of this discussion.

“Human rights are very important and should be the same for all people no matter their background, their race, origin etc. People deserve to be accepted as they are. They have their rights which are the same as yours and they should be respected.”

Back at the conference, you didn’t have to be young to enjoy the most fun event of AIDS 2010 so far - the Condomize party – and what a party it was. Hundreds of people of  al ages gathered in the conference’s Global Village to party, have a good time, but all with a condom awareness theme.

There were Condomize T-shirts handed out, condom giveaways and even a condom fashion show. And there was great music from dance4life ambassador DJ Jesse Voorn The party went on late into the night and ended all too soon for most of the party goers who could have carried on into the early hours of the morning.

It marked a real change for AIDS conferences and helped to lighten the mood after all the serious science. I hope they continue to have them in future events.

By Peter Roach, Vice President of the Durex Network at the AIDS Conference in Vienna.

Today marked a big push for condom awareness, with the Condomize campaign going all-out to make sure everyone at the conference has one of its T-shirts.
The shirts are simply amazing. They have a panel on the front for people to write their own safer sex message and also have a special condom holder which contains two free condoms.

Impromptu T-shirt stands were set up all over the conference where people could collect shirts, add their personal messages and put them on. It was obvious that the delegates loved them as the queues to get them were huge.

I helped out at one of the stands for a few hours, engaging with the hundreds of delegates and members of the public from all over the world about condom issues. The intention is that everyone with a shirt will wear them to the Condomize party on Thursday night. The party is open to everyone at the conference and the general public too. It’s all part of the campaign to make people more used to talking about and using condoms to keep themselves safe.

Later I went into the poster area as I have a poster presentation of some of the research that we’ve done in the Durex Network about youth knowledge, attitudes and practices across Europe. At poster presentations, the work you have done is summarised in a large poster and the researcher is then available to explain the research and its importance. The poster attracted a lot of positive comment from attendees.

While I was there one of the frequent demonstrations that I’ve seen at the conference took place. Hundreds of activists from the conference poured past the poster section and into the exhibition centre. They stopped at some of the pharmaceutical companies stands, blowing whistles and chanting that money should not be made out of AIDS. It made it very clear that feelings still run very high and that people aren’t afraid to take direct action to make their voices heard.

On a lighter note and back in the Global Village section of the conference, I saw a performance from Dance4Life, the international organisation that raises awareness of HIV among youth through the power of dance. They will be performing tomorrow at the Condomize party on Thursday night.

Tomorrow’s blog will include some copy from a young person I mentioned earlier – the journalist from Mexico whose presence we funded through YouAct. He will be giving his take on the whole event from a youth point of view.

By Peter Roach, Vice President of the Durex Network at the AIDS Conference in Vienna.

The big news today was the announcement that for the first time a microbicide has been successful in blocking the transmission of HIV. The study was carried out in South Africa and showed a 39% reduction in the risk of HIV infection.

While this is great news, there’s still a long way to go in terms of improving efficacy and then making a product available…

The only method to prevent AIDS among sexually active people is the condom. It is highly effective in blocking the virus, is cost effective to produce and distribute and is tried and tested. So while the world waits for a cure, the message remains pretty simple – always use a condom.

Speaking of condoms, they have been everywhere in Vienna at the conference. The Condomize campaign is handing out a total of a million of them to the conference goers to take back to their countries. They are also handing out special Condomize T-shirts to the conference delegates to get the message across. The campaign aims to destigmatize condom use and, everywhere you look, you see hundreds of T-shirt clad young volunteers spreading the word.

Condoms were even handed out in Vienna’s underground train system. A group of the volunteers boarded the trains to give out 20,000 to commuters this morning and the event made the main TV news here.

Moving on from condoms, this evening I went to a special event held by MTV, where they talked about their project Ignite. This was a series of three films they made to help educate young people about HIV transmission and prevention. One of the films – Shuga – was screened for us to see. It was set in Nairobi and followed the fortunes of a group of high-living young people as they got to grips with the issues of AIDS and it was good to see that parents were portrayed as being in a position to positively impact on the young people’s behaviour.

MTV has done some interesting research about whether Shuga was watched and remembered by young people in Nairobi and the results were staggeringly good. It shows that if you produce a drama with a strong plot and powerful messages, then it can potentially be used to influence the behaviour of young people.

Tomorrow will be Condom day at the conference and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone wearing Condomize T-shirts. I know I’ll have mine on!

By Peter Roach, Vice President of the Durex Network at the AIDS Conference in Vienna.

Monday was a day of big name speakers, non-stop hustle and bustle and meetings with partners. The big names on the agenda were former US President Bill Clinton and Microsoft computer billionaire Bill Gates - and both had money on their mind.

In separate sessions each commented on the need for more efficiency in the fight against AIDS.

Bill Clinton pointed out that too much money is spent on reports that just sit on shelves and urged that funds should be directed to AIDS sufferers. He also said that less money should be spent on flights and meetings and that instead it should go to local organisations who can deliver services in developing countries at lower cost. Bill Gates also pointed out that money is a big issue and that health groups should adopt better business practices – calling for more bang for the buck.

There were also major presentations on treatment, funding, and human rights. These were made by Vuyiseka Dubulu of the South Africa Treatment Action Campaign Treatment and Anya Sarang of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice.

In essence, Anya argued for programmes and policies rooted in human rights. She pointed out that policies in the war on drugs can have a negative effect on HIV treatment and prevention programmes. She called on national governments to promote evidence based approaches to harm reduction, including scale up of easy to access needle and syringe distribution.

Vuyiseka stressed that funding must be in place and that scientists and activists need to find new ways to ensure that world leaders are accountable for the targets they set by replenishing the Global Fund with at least 20 billion USD.

The presentations, and the sessions I’ve just mentioned are simply the tip of the iceberg. There was also the chance to meet and network with other organisations.

I got the chance to meet up with You Act – a Youth advocacy group we support and work with - who told us how they have funded a young journalist’s trip to the conference from Mexico to help develop his skills and give him access to wider opportunities – I’ll be asking him to guest blog on this site later at the conference.

I also met representatives from HIV Sport who told me about the work they are doing in the UK and Africa to help raise awareness of HIV among the sporting world.

The conference closed at 8pm, but I’m due back at 8am on Tuesday as I want to see the people from the Condomize campaign head off to distribute condoms on the Vienna underground. This is part of a major awareness programme that is being launched at the conference and I’ll report more about this on Wednesday.

The world’s largest gathering of people involved in living with or treating HIV is now underway. It is estimated that 20,000 people have travelled from more than 185 countries to congregate on Vienna. Everywhere you look in the city you see people carrying the bright red conference bags, or sporting conference name badges.

The conference venue itself is huge – it is so big that that it spans two stops of the local underground railway and it is not uncommon to see people travelling by mini scooter from one side to the other.

The conference began here two days ago with the Life Ball – a major and exclusive event that attracts celebrities by the dozen and has a distinct dress code that says you MUST dress to thrill. Anything ordinary is simply not allowed. A large section of the centre of the city was closed off to allow the exotically dressed guests and dancers to parade through the streets. It was a stunning show only spoiled slightly by torrential rain as it was finishing.

The conference proper kicked off on Sunday (18 July), with Austrian President Heinz Fischer and Minister of Health Alois Stoger welcoming delegates.

The conference heard that the epidemic has stabilised, with annual numbers of deaths declining from 2.2 million in 2004 to 2 million in 2008. But there are still some areas where the numbers are growing, such as in parts of Central and Eastern Europe.

Speaking on the state of human rights in the epidemic, Paula Akugibzwe, of the AIDS and Rights Alliance of South Africa said that the greatest barriers to achieving universal access are social, economic and political challenges and there is an urgent need for HIV response based on concrete human rights principles, including an end to laws criminalising HIV transmission and marginalising people living with HIV. Her comments tied in with the conference theme “Rights Here, Right Now.”

Unfortunately I couldn’t watch too much of the opening ceremony as I was helping to set up the CONDOMIZE! Zone in the conference’s Global Village section. There were condoms everywhere – in the conference packs, in displays on the walls – even condoms that could be inflated to make a display for passersby. CONDOMIZE! is a brand new initiative that’s being launched at the conference and is aimed to make condoms more widely available and acceptable to all. I’m proud to say that Durex is playing a key role in the CONDOMIZE! initiative, but I’ll talk more about it in a later blog when it is launched.

The scale of the conference is truly overwhelming, with so much to see and so many people, all with information, stories and points to put across. I’ve got a full programme of meetings and presentations during the week and will keep this blog updated with news and developments as the conference continues.

By Peter Roach, Vive President, Durex Network

The 2010 International AIDS Conference takes place next week (18-23 July) in Vienna and I’ll be attending it on behalf of the Durex Network.

The Durex Network is the social arm of Durex - and was founded in 2005 to formalise the work that Durex has been doing over many years to raise awareness of the safer sex message globally.

At the Network, we’re committed to promoting responsible sex and reproductive healthcare and raising awareness of the safer sex message through the development and support of sexual health initiatives.

Our core activity is to develop and support initiatives that harness the expertise of international organisations, healthcare professionals, educators and politicians to help prevent unplanned pregnancies and the transmission of STIs including HIV/AIDS. We do this through a range of initiatives, ranging from social marketing projects, through to advocacy and campaigning and social research. You can find out more about the Durex Network at www.durexnetwork.org.

So the International AIDS Conference is a very important event for us.  In fact, it’s the premier gathering for those working in the field of HIV, as well as policy makers, persons living with HIV and other individuals committed to ending the pandemic. It is a chance to assess where we are, evaluate recent scientific developments and lessons learnt, and collectively chart a course forward.

Despite growing momentum over the past few years, significant challenges remain. It is now absolutely clear that stigma, discrimination and rights violations, as well as punitive or misguided policies towards key populations most affected by HIV, are major obstacles to an effective response to HIV.

AIDS 2010 will coincide with a major push for expanded access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. With a global economic crisis threatening to undermine public investments, the conference will help keep HIV on the front burner, and is a chance to demonstrate the importance of continued HIV investments to broader health and development goals.

What is the Durex Network doing at the AIDS Conference?

We are involved at a number of levels and this includes presenting the results of our international research into sexual health behaviours and attitudes as well as taking part in discussions on engaging with men to increase condom use.

But probably the most high profile activity we’ll be involved with is the Condomize campaign where we are teaming up with the UNFPA and the Condom Project to de-stigmatize condom use and promote the vital role they play in halting the spread of STIs including HIV.

Durex has donated a quarter of a million condoms which will be handed out at the event and also in breakout events throughout Vienna. Conference delegates and youth volunteers will be able to support the Condomize campaign by wearing specially-designed Condomize shirts.

The conference will also feature a ‘Global Village’ which promotes networking and provides a space for displays, discussions and performances from throughout the world. The Global Village is open to the general public and conference delegates. The Network will have a strong presence within the Village’s Condom Zone providing information on good sexual health.

I’ll be providing regular updates from the conference with highlights of presentations, events and information to try to give you a flavour of the world’s largest gathering of people dedicated to the fight against HIV and AIDS.

By Peter Roach
Vice President of the Durex Network

Want to know more? Visit www.aids2010.org for more information on the conference.