CLOSE THE GAPS: How to Counter the Retreat From HIV Treatment Scale-Up; Current and Future Prospects for Scaling Up Optimal AIDS Treatment

For more information on this session, including access to speaker presentations, please see the conference Programme-at-a-Glance.

The past decade has shown that providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) makes clinical, social and economic sense. ART is bending all epidemiological curves, resulting in reduced morbidity and mortality, and recent research now shows that treatment also reduces HIV incidence. Despite this evidence, donors are shifting their focus away from AIDS just as efforts should be ramped up. This will have the effect of freezing in time the progress made on scale up, models of care and recommended quality of care improvements for patients in endemic countries.

This satellite session will focus on ways to counter the retreat and build upon the lessons of the last ten years with a vision for the future, while looking at interventions that could additionally 'bend the cost curve,' by encouraging efficiencies that do not sacrifice quality, successful treatment strategies and scale up as a whole. It will discuss options for different levels of ARV dosing, identify promising ARVs in the pipeline that could be produced at relatively low cost if patents were put in the newly-established Medicines Patent Pool, and measures to encourage R&D for needed tools to simplify and improve care. At the same time, the session will look at urgent steps that must be undertaken by the international community to ensure that the progress won over the last decade is not lost because of the donor retreat from HIV/AIDS.

Presentations in This Session:

Welcome Address
Presented by Tido von Schoen-Angerer, Switzerland

Lessons and Consequences of ART Delayed, Deferred, and Denied
Presented by Nathan Ford, United Kingdom

Costs and Benefits of Rapid Scale-Up to Meet UA and Realizing Treatment as Prevention
Presented by Jean-Paul (Invited) Moatti, France

Questions and Answers
Mit Philips -- Moderator
Carol Dieffenbach
Reuben Granich
Olayide Akanni

FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR RADICAL SIMPLIFICATION OF CARE & OTHER GAME CHANGERS

Optimizing and Simplifying the Toolkit (Drugs, Dosing, and Diagnostics) and Delivery of ART
Presented by Eric Goemaere, South Africa

Threats & Opportunities: The Current Policy Landscape
Presented by Rolake Odetoyinbo Nwagwu (Invited), Nigeria

Questions and Answers
Sharonann Lynch -- Moderator
Eric Goemaere
Janice Lee
Tido von Schoen-Angerer
Gottfried Hirnschall

Closing Remarks

Close the Gaps: How to counter the retreat from HIV treatment scale up (.mp3)