The Global HIV Community is Getting a Divorce

The breaking point has been reached. After months of activism that has failed to convince the International AIDS Society (IAS) to withdraw their “AIDS2020” conference from San Francisco, activists have now announced an alternative conference, “HIV2020,” to be held in Mexico City at the same time as AIDS2020.

The global HIV community, in other words, is getting a divorce. The community-based groups have officially broken away from the scientists, researchers, and the privileged, monied establishment that largely comprise the IAS. The HIV2020 announcement, as triumphant a development as it represents, is dampened somewhat by a sad feeling of disillusionment.

(The best way to differentiate these two conference names is quite telling: HIV2020 suggests the modern way of referring to the spectrum of HIV disease, while the name AIDS2020 is as antiquated as the IAS itself.)

San Francisco has always been a ludicrous choice for AIDS2020, but for financial reasons, primarily.  Read more via My Fabulous Disease