UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
======================================================== SEA-AIDSFLASH Number Eleven - 15 July 1996 The bi-weekly electronic news digest on HIV and AIDS in the South East Asia Region (Subscriber total today: 440) ________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS - Eleventh International Conference on AIDS - Media coverage of the conference - New information and resources available in SEA-AIDSFiles - Forthcoming events, meetings and training in the SE Asia region - How to retrieve materials from SEA-AIDSFiles ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AIDS This week an estimated 15,000 delegates descended on the city of Vancouver to take part in the largest ever conference on HIV and AIDS - the same number of people who become infected with HIV every 48 hours. Half of the scholarships awarded to participants were awarded to delegates from developing countries. This issue of AIDSFlash provides the text of abstracts presented to the conference that have a SE Asia regional relevance, descriptions of individual sessions from the conference and an overview of worldwide media coverage of the conference - as well as our usual bi-weekly coverage of news and developments from the region itself. By far the most widely covered issue arising from the conference, the results and comments about new antiviral drug combination trials, feature prominently. Here is just one quote from the opening session of the conference: Doreen Millman of Vancouver: "You're wondering how someone like me, a 63-year-old grandmother, got infected. The answer is very simple.... "It just doesn't matter!" On behalf of all those who were not in Vancouver, we thank the conference organizers, people maintaining other e-mail/Internet services, and various media agencies, for working together to make this information available in such a rapid and unprecedented way. MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE VANCOUVER CONFERENCE The conference itself (news15.txt; 19.6Kb): - At AIDS Meeting, Experts Find an Uneasy Mix of Hope and Fear - With Fanfare, Global AIDS Conference Gets Underway in Vancouver - The 11th International Conference on AIDS opened here today with all the ceremony and international flavor of an antimicrobial Olympic Games - AIDS conference starts amid hope, urgency - Conference Opens With Warning On Drug Resistance And Data On A New Solution - Experts Gather For AIDS Meet - AIDS conference to mix science and spectacle New treatment and vaccine developments (news16.txt; 34.8Kb): - Studies Show Even Stronger AIDS Drugs - Drug companies release fresh news on AIDS drugs - 3-Drug Combination Appears to Lessen HIV - Global Effort To Develop AIDS Vaccine Launched: Industry - A Realistic Hope for an AIDS Cure - Cocktails offer real AIDS hope, researchers say - Nelfinavir In Combination With AZT And 3tc Result In Aviremia - Researchers say AIDS is now a treatable disease - AIDS breakthroughs beyond reach of poor nations Other general reports from the conference (news17.txt; 26.7Kb): - Societal Factors Lead To Spread Of HIV, According To UCSF Researcher - Rotary And UN Join Forces To Combat AIDS; Young People Tapped As Part Of The Solution - HIV infections expected to double by 2000 - India Quickly Leads in HIV Cases, AIDS Meeting Hears - 21 Million Have HIV Virus - AIDS killed 1.3 million last year but UN sees hope - AIDS activism transformed, now "at the table" - Cradle of AIDS still its worst victim This week's regional news (news18.txt; 36.1Kb): - China makes record monthly drugs haul in April - Japan's Anti-AIDS Drug Arsenal Slowly Expands - Deserted by Families, AIDS Victims in Vietnam Face the Disease Alone - Lethal Infection by a Previously Unrecognized Metazoan - Cambodian tattoos protect only so far - Science and Technology: Hope - Reliable Oral AIDS Test Gains Approval of FDA - 24 Singaporeans Get AIDS Virus in First Quarter - Karachi Launches Program to Raise Awareness About AIDS - Thailand Tops List of HIV-Pregnancies in Asia - Malaysia in big push for trans-Asia railway plan - EU Clears AIDS, Other Funds For Third World - Thousands Test Blood in Taiwan Hepatitis Scare - Thailand begins forced repatriation of last Vietnamese asylum seekers - Singapore team finds herbal HIV inhibitor - Media a Factor in Teen Sex, Poll Says - HIV Infections on the Rise in Japan - HIV Cases Nearly Doubled in China Last Year - Oral Sex Linked to Greater Risk of AIDS in Monkeys - U.S./China AIDS research proposed - China says 3,341 HIV-infected, 117 have AIDS - $70 million ADB loan to improve health, education and agriculture in Cambodia - HIV Prevention in Asia: A Business Opportunity - More Than 100 Million Worldwide Predicted To Be HIV-Positive - Japanese Minister Takes Pay Cut to Atone for HIV Contamination - AIDS on rise in Asia, peaking in parts of Europe NEW INFORMATION AND RESOURCES AVAILABLE IN SEA-AIDSFILES The following information/materials have recently been added to the SEA-AIDSFiles archives (see below for retrieval instructions): Regionally-relevant abstracts from the Vancouver conference One hundred and eight abstracts presented at the Vancouver conference described projects and research from the SE Asia region - they have each been archived in SEA-AIDSFiles by country and include full contact details of authors. Cambodia - 3 abstracts (conf1.txt; 9.4Kb) People's Republic of China - 24 abstracts (conf2.txt; 56.6Kb) Indonesia - 19 abstracts (conf3.txt; 41.6Kb) Laos - 2 abstracts (conf4.txt; 5.2Kb) Malaysia - 11 abstracts (conf5.txt; 32.2Kb) Myanmar/Burma - 8 abstracts (conf6.txt; 18.8Kb) The Philippines - 13 abstracts (conf7.txt; 20.7Kb) Thailand - 26 abstracts (conf8.txt; 52.3Kb) Viet Nam - 2 abstracts (conf9.txt; 4.4Kb) Asia in general - 26 abstracts (conf10.txt; 59.4Kb) For a complete catalogue of all abstracts in the files listed above, request file conf11.txt (29.5Kb). Vancouver Update by Lloyd Grosse of Out Public Relations, Australia - reviewing the presentations and highlighting the most important findings to emerge in this ever changing therapeutic field (conf12.txt; 22.5Kb). Reports on each day of the Pre-conference Community Forum (North meets South), by Jules Levin of the National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project (NATAP), USA (conf13.txt; 8.3Kb). The following collections of articles describing sessions and/or presentations have been reproduced from the on-site newspaper of the Vancouver conference: Emotions run high as delegates gather Awards celebrate young investigators Community forum achieves progress on key issues HIV risk linked to women's sexual rights Rally demands renewal of Canadian AIDS strategy Can combination therapies eradicate HIV? Therapy and viral load monitoring: state of the art These seven articles can be retrieved by requesting file conf14.txt (8.3Kb) Protease inhibitors: Ritonavir test shows reduced mortality rate HIV prevention works Regional difference key in drug debate Media can be "powerful force for education" New network offers AIDS info to the developing world A crisis in treatment access Lu proposes new vaccine design Vaccines: A multi-dimensional debate These eight articles can be retrieved by requesting file conf15.txt (30.6Kb) Antibody gives complete protection in vivo Puzzling protection against superinfection may prove fruitful Vaccine models in animals reveal new disease pathways Social networks can protect IDUs HIV rates "astonishingly high" among India's women Three-drug combinations offer "fairly impressive" results Education can end stigma Sexual culture shifts in response to virus Taking ribbons from our dreamcatchers Innovative training -- live! Aldyn McKean lecture celebrates life Empowerment, community mobilisation and social change in the face of AIDS These twelve articles can be retrieved by requesting file conf16.txt (30.9Kb) Challenges in female-controlled prevention In the eye of the epidemic Investigating viral escape mechanisms Sustainability remains challenge for community interventions Prevention success and challenges in Africa "Remarkable" increase in condom use in Thailand Sexual abuse increases HIV risk Women, violence and AIDS AIDS activism creates new identities Positive outlook for preventing perinatal transmission These ten articles can be retrieved by requesting file conf17.txt (36.3Kb) World Medicine and Western Medicine: The Missing Dialog An interview with Kaiya Montaocean Co-Director, Center for Natural and Traditional Medicines by John S. James (care21.txt; 19.1Kb) Consensus statement on research gaps/issues - Developed at the Women and HIV/AIDS Workshop, May 26-31, 1996, Nairobi, Kenya. This workshop was organized by the Network of AIDS Researchers of Eastern and Southern Africa (NARESA) and the Society for Women and AIDS in Kenya (SWAK) with support from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) (stdis14.txt; 14.6Kb) Update on Bhoruka AIDS Control and Prevention (BAP) project - a clinic based STD/HIV prevention activity situated in Raxaul, the cross border check post on the Bihar, India and Birganj, Nepal border (care22.txt; 5.2Kb) FORTHCOMING EVENTS, MEETINGS AND TRAINING IN OR FOR THE SE ASIA REGION The 3rd World Congress of Bioethics will take place from 22-24 November 1996 in San Francisco. Its the major public event the International Association of Bioethics is organising. For further information send a fax to (213) 740-5502, or e-mail khurshee@scf.usc.edu. IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO ALREADY, WHY NOT send sea-aids details of forthcoming events and activities in the region. This might include meetings, seminars, forthcoming study tours, training opportunities or electronic events. Details should be sent to: tfran@mozart.inet.co.th INSTRUCTIONS FOR RETRIEVING FILES [YOU COULD PRINT THIS SECTION FOR FUTURE REFERENCE] The materials mentioned above are stored in a computer. The computer is like an electronic filing cabinet - it has drawers and files. You have to tell it which drawer to open and which file to select. Following each of the document descriptions above there is a number and a file name given in brackets. So for example, if you want to retrieve the collection of Vancouver abstracts related to Malaysia (conf5.txt; 32.2Kb). The number shows the size of the file (32.2 kilobytes in this case), and the filename first shows the name of the drawer (in this instance 'conf') and then gives the file number (for this file it is 5). To obtain a copy of this document you send an e-mail to: ftpmail@inet.co.th with the following in the text of the message: open get /pub/sea-aids/conf/conf5.txt Other files can be retrieved using the same general format for your message. For example: open get /pub/sea-aids/drawername/filename Because these requests are answered automatically by computer, you must be very careful to copy the format of the message carefully (including spaces and slashes). If you would like further instructions for retrieving files in this way, send an e-mail to: majordomo@lists.inet.co.th with the following in the text of the message: get sea-aids retrev.idx Please let us know if you have any retrieval problems. FEEDBACK PLEASE! Please tell us what you like or do not like about sea-aids, or get in touch if you need any help using these services. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> AIDSFlash is produced as part of the sea-aids information support services by: UNAIDS Intercountry Team, UNESCAP Building (B359) Rajadamnoen Nok Avenue, Bangkok 10200 Tel: (66 2) 288 2498 Fax: (66 2) 288 1092 Direct E-mail: tfran@mozart.inet.co.th >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>