Vienna Day Two: Fully funding the AIDS response, promising new drugs and renewed commitment by China

On Day 2 of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Vienna the question of fully funding the response to AIDS remained at the top of the agenda.  In a keynote speech, Former President Bill Clinton urged funders not to make short term cuts in their AIDS budgets because of the economic crisis -- cuts which could put at risk all the progress that has been made so far and have a devastating long term impact on the global community’s ability to turn the epidemic around.  President Clinton also commented on the issue of integration of health services, including HIV, challenging us all to think beyond false choices relating to funding one health priority over another, and concentrating instead on real programmatic integration where it can be demonstrated to provide tangible efficiencies and results.

There were a number of interesting sessions that shed new light on important topics.  One program examined the role of male partners in the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. It’s known that pregnant women who are considering being tested are extremely anxious about the attitudes and responses of their male partners.  Researchers presented a study today looking at attitudes of women and their partners where it was reported that while the common perception is that a pregnant women would be adversely affected if she tests positive, data shows that male partners can be more supportive when they are informed about the test results.  There are interesting implications here for the role of male partners in bringing HIV positive pregnant women into a continuum of care

Another session examined the state of the injection drug user (IDU) epidemic in Zanzibar.  A new study reports that IDUs in Zanzibar have a 16% greater HIV prevalence rate than adults in the general population, half of IDUs share needles, and high risk sexual behavior remains high among IDUs coupled with low condom use rates.  These statistics reinforce the importance of efforts such as the Pangaea-supported government program in Tanzania and Zanzibar that will be providing comprehensive harm reduction and HIV services.

On the treatment front, there was exciting news about new medications, including in vitro data on excising HIV pro-viral DNA.  HIV integrates itself into an individual’s DNA at the cellular level and stays there, unaffected by existing antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, so the new data offers hope that new therapies could change this picture.  In addition, there was data presented on new integrase inhibitors that work against forms of the virus that are resistant to the existing inhibitor Raltegravir.

Finally, there was a fascinating session devoted to the state of the epidemic in China and the government’s response.  Of note were new commitments by the Chinese government to increase its domestic AIDS budget and a growing recognition of the increasing infection rate among men who have sex with men (MSM.) During this session, the government made a commitment to increase the involvement of community based organizations. 

As the second day of the conference comes to a close, there is huge anticipation of the results to be presented tomorrow of the CAPRISA study, which looks at the effectiveness of a vaginal microbicide in South African women.  We’ll be reporting on that development and others tomorrow.