Introduction

If the United States is to reduce the number of new HIV infections, communities across the country will have to find new ways of doing their prevention work. This was the central message of the HIV Prevention Leadership Summit, held from Wednesday, June 16 to Saturday, June 19 in Atlanta, Georgia.

For ten years, the summit -- previously known as the Community Planning Leadership Summit for HIV Prevention (CPLS) -- has drawn together health department staff, community co-chairs and other leaders in community planning. It has provided participants with an opportunity to exchange information and learn about the nature and scope of prevention efforts across the country. This year, the summit's steering committee expanded and enhanced the program to bring in a broader array of prevention experts, most notably professionals from community-based organizations. The name of the summit was revised to mark this change; the annual gathering will now be known as the HIV Prevention Leadership Summit, or HPLS.

HPLS' four-day program offered more than 70 workshops and roundtables where the summit's theme, Retooling to Maximize the Power of Prevention, was explored from multiple perspectives. As instructional opportunities, the workshops included presentations by one or more individuals, with question-and-answer opportunities integrated into the curricula. The roundtables were less structured, more conversational sessions that encouraged greater interaction among attendees. In addition, the HPLS agenda offered a plenary session each day (Wednesday excluded), either at breakfast or lunch. At each of these sessions, attendees were able to hear the remarks of several prevention experts addressing the same prevention-related theme.

This special edition of the Weekly Update is dedicated exclusively to HPLS. The articles contained in this edition were written by the AIDS Action staff members who attended. While the summit's content cannot be covered exhaustively within the confines of a newsletter, the staff reports provide a clear sense of the issues and challenges that are arising in the HIV prevention community as Advancing HIV Prevention: New Strategies for a Changing Epidemic (AHP) begins to be implemented in communities throughout the country. (AHP is a combined effort of the Centers for Disease Control Prevention [CDC] and other agencies, both governmental and nongovernmental, that emphasizes routine HIV testing; identification of new cases; partner notification; and increased availability of ongoing treatment and prevention services for HIV-positive people.)

The articles in this Weekly Update have been organized thematically, and each has been given an original title, save for the three that appear under The Plenary Experience, which fall under the official HPLS session titles. We hope you find the information instrumental in your efforts to reduce the cases of new infections in the United States.

Back to the AIDS Action Weekly Update June 25, 2004 contents page.