According to Health-E news, which will be publishing daily conference updates on its website, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is set to deliver the keynote address at Tuesday's opening, sharing the podium with Graca Machel and UNAIDS head Peter Piot.  It is the only national AIDS conference that brings together such a large group of scientists, academics, policy makers, programme planners, civil society, donors and international partners to discuss HIV and AIDS.

 "Scientific knowledge about HIV infection and AIDS is advancing rapidly at global and local levels and there is a need to disseminate and discuss the latest information and insights gained by those engaged in research, policy making, programme implementation and service delivery," explained conference chair, Dr Olive Shisana.

"If all players could develop a coordinated response based on a common understanding of the implications of recent advances in knowledge of the epidemic, the country would be in a much better position to address the challenges posed by HIV and AIDS."

The conference will build on the last two highly successful South African AIDS Conferences, held in 2003 and 2005, the latter which attracted more than 4,500 delegates from government and non-government sectors, academia, the private sector, donors and the media.

Shisana said the South African AIDS Conference 2007 programme is unique in that the formal conference will include a track (or sub-theme) during which people living with HIV/AIDS, and people vulnerable to, or affected by the epidemic, will participate meaningfully in the programme in a session on exchange encounters. They will share their experiences on topics such as stigma, human rights, effective methods of preventing HIV transmission to sexual partners and reducing the spread of drug-resistant strains of HIV.

The other tracks in the formal conference programme are: Basic and Clinical Sciences; Epidemiology, Prevention and Health Systems; Social and Economic Sciences, Human Rights and Ethics; and Best Practices. Detailed descriptions of the five conference tracks are available on the conference website, www.sa-aidsconference.com.

Shisana said the South African AIDS Conference 2007 programme was developed to assist participants in finding common ground between different interest groups through information sharing and discussion forums in the key areas critical for prevention, treatment and care. There are sessions on the state-of-the-art in prevention technologies, new approaches to prevention, the long-term impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy on incidence, prevalence, morbidity and mortality, nutrition and HIV/AIDS, and research on complimentary and traditional medicines is on the agenda.

In the area of prevention, new technologies, such as post-exposure prophylaxis, microbicides and vaccines will be explored. Another current topic up for discussion is risk compensation, where people who use methods of infection prevention behave in ways that counteract the protective effect of the intervention. Circumcised men, for example, might feel safer and consequently have sex more frequently or with more partners thereby reducing or even reversing the protection offered by circumcision.

On the topic of AIDS care and treatment, experiences of provision of AIDS care and the benefits, side-effects and long-term effects of antiretroviral therapy (ARV), will be shared. The conference will also address topics such as nutrition and HIV, and the state of research on complimentary and traditional medicines in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Running parallel to the conference will be symposia, workshops, skills-building sessions and exhibitions.

SABCOHA will be hosting a satellite session on Wednesday 6 June in the ballroom at the Hilton Hotel.

Click here for the SABCOHA programme:

Click here to view the conference website