Posted by Tyler S.

A final post as we wrap things up here in Mexico City today: Here are a few pics of AIDS Committee of Toronto staff presenting their poster abstracts during the conference. 

Posted by Tyler S.

Posted by Robin R.

One of my areas of work at ACT is health promotion for people living with HIV-related dementia and their caregivers. As such, I made a point of attending a skills-building workshop on neurological and mental health complications in people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs). I wasn’t disappointed; there is interesting work being done in the field which reinforces the need for more dementia and mental-health focused programming for PHAs.

To wit: In his presentation on the cognitive complications associated with HIV infection, Dr. Igor Grant, a professor of psychiatrity at the University of California - San Diego, indicated that 30% of PHAs suffer from cognitive complications and other mental health issues in some form, whether mild or debilitating.

These include dementia, depression, memory loss, anxiety, and other mood disorders. According to his work, PHAs who use drugs or alcohol were at particular risk. Memory loss, among the most common cognitive disorders, presents particular difficulties for PHAs, as they may be less likely to adhere to their antivetroviral drug regimens as a result.

Also at issue was the question of whether antiretroviral medications themselves can cause neurological complications. Dr. David Clifford of Washington University presented evidence that 50% of the PHAs in his study who were taking antiretroviral medications (particularly DDi and DT4) presented some signs of this. Again, patients who had a history of substance use or were also infected with Hepatitis C were more likely to present symptoms.

Overall, I was left with the feeling that we need to do more to address the issue of HIV and dementia. ACT’s HIV and Dementia program is a start, but we — ACT, our partners, and public health — need to monitor the research closely and develop more comprehensive programming for PHAs dealing with dementia and other cognitive disorders.

Posted by Miguel C.

Walking around the conference site, you can’t help but be drawn in by the powerful graphic design that goes into prevention and anti-stigma campaigns. Here are a few of the more striking examples I saw.

Posted by Lily M.

I dropped by the Elsevier booth at the exhibition hall this morning, and discovered that this leading science publishing company is offering free access to select content from a number of their infectious disease journals, as well as a sneak preview to their new and best-selling books from 2007-08.  To have a look, register at www.IDpublications.com.

Posted by Robin R.

Every International AIDS Conference generates a great deal of buzz about the latest developments in AIDS vaccine trials, and this year’s conference is no exception. A few notable announcements so far:

The U.S. govermnment has decided not to go ahead with PAVE 100, their proposed AIDS vaccine trial, after the pharmaceutical company Merck-Frosst discovered a potential problem with their similarly designed STEP trial — namely, that the vaccine could potentially make some people more susceptible to HIV. No one in their trial was actually infected with HIV.

The State Research Centre of the Russian Federation has announced promising developments in their study of the use of T and B immune cells for the development of an effective and safe vaccine. Their vaccine research on mice showed a strong immuno-response to the HIV-1 virus. The vaccine has been recommend now for clinical trials in humans. 

Dr. Anthoni Fauci, head of the National Institue of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the U.S., characterized the state of vaccine research around the world as “a path that is longer than expected. But we are on the road to finding something.”

There seems to be consensus that there must be greater and more systematic collaborations between governments, research organizations, and individual researchers, particularly between the private and public sectors, and on a global level. Whether this is lip service or an indication of growing political will remains to be seen, but there is reason to be hopeful.

Microbicides continue to be contentious subject. A recent study on women using microbicides to protect themselves from HIV during vaginal sex with men suggested that, used inconsistently, particularly among commercial sex workers, may have the effect of causing the HIV virus to mutate and become more treatment-resistant.

Ultimately, researchers do not yet know whether drug resistance will be a problem for users of antiretroviral drug-based microbicides and more research will be required. Until there is conclusive data, this form of prevention will remain provisional at best.

Posted by Sergio M.

Yesterday, I discovered that all the way across the globe, in Papua New Guinea (PNG), an educator working with the National AIDS Council Secretariat there has developed a media training module for community-based organizations working with people living with HIV/AIDS.  

Was she aware of the fact that the AIDS Committee of Toronto is presenting a poster at the conference on our own media training module, “Putting a Positive Spin On It: Media Training for People Living with HIV/AIDS”? Probably not.

But upon reading the workshop description — “Media Management: Working With The Media To Your Advantage” — in the Conference calendar and seeing that the presenter’s name was Nidia Martinez (like me, Nidia was born in Argentina and her parents migrated to Australia when she was a child),  curiosity got the better of me, and off I went in search of her workshop.

What’s exciting about the our respective media training programs is that they are complimentary: Where our program focuses on empowering individuals living with HIV/AIDS to tell their stories to the media, Nidia’s focuses on organizations, helping them to implement a media strategy.  

She was thrilled to learn that we had developed a workshop that directly meets the needs of PHAs and we spent quite a bit of time discussing our respective modules, exploring ways that we can support each other’s work and planning for future opportunities to exchange information.  She even invited me to visit her in PNG, which sounds pretty good to me.

Her workshop was fascinating, and drew on real-life examples from her work there. She related the story of how she came to work as a media consultant with the country’s AIDS Council Secretariat, when a worker from a local NGO was misquoted as saying he saw three HIV-positive people buried alive when they grew very sick.

Within 24 hours, the story had been picked up by the international wires, UNAIDS demanded an investigation of the treatment of PHAs in Papau New Guinea, and media around the world published statements condemning the government. In fact, the NGO worker had meant that the people in question were figuratively “buried,” as in they didn’t receive the care they needed once they became sick.

Six months later, Nidia was hired to implement a media management plan and to develop workshop to train the staff of local AIDS service organizations to handle interviews with the press. The rest, as they say, is history.

Posted by Dayna S.

It is my second day at the conference itself and I am still in awe of the scale of the event. The amount of people from all over the world and the massive amount of space we are encompassing. The conference centre itself feels comparable to a busy airport.

I had a strange experience yesterday meeting a woman from Papua, New Guinea, we were travelling together on a shuttle from the conference to a central area of town. She had travelled from her country to Australia, then to Hong Kong, Vancouver and finally south to Mexico City.

She must have been travelling for almost three days. The ironic thing was, we could relate to one another, we both were mothers, had the same concerns and yet she had come from one of the the most remote places in the world — at least in my mind. We exchanged cards and hope to stay in touch. I learned an important lesson about my perceptions of the world and how united we really are despite what continent or hemisphere we live in.

At the conference itself, I was fortunate yesterday to view several poster presentations that relate directly to the work I do at ACT as a job developer in the Employment Action program. Some of the posters presented research confirming what I expected, basically that, yes, access to job training and employment improves quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs).

What I found interesting was to see the outcomes of a New York-based program very similar to ours, which provides a combination of employment counselling, vocational training, and job placements to PHAs. I spoke to the presenters about the issue of HIV disclosure (or non-disclosure) in the workplace as it relates discrimination and came to the conclusion that at this moment in time, the situation is similar in Canada and the United States — we need to continue to advocate on behalf of our clients to maintain and improve workplace rights.

I look forward to sharing what I’ve learned with the rest of the Employment Action team when I return to Toronto.

Posted by Andre C.

Posted by Lily M. 

On arriving at the very first day of the AIDS 2008 Conference, I found the halls bustling with people and activities (not to mention very long lineups at the washrooms and food vendors!).  I bumped into a couple of ACT colleagues and was happy to see some familiar faces at this HUGE international event.  It reminded me why we’re here and I felt proud and honoured to be part of the ACT team that is attending the conference.

I attended a session called “Reaching Millions — Youth, AIDS and the Digital Age.”  Though the session focused on youth-oriented projects, I feel that its lessons can be applied to many contexts when the goal is to create awareness about HIV/AIDS.

One website that was mentioned was TakingITGlobal (www.takingitglobal.org). This is an online social network for youth and is available in over a dozen languages. Among other things, it includes information resources and discussion forums. Through all this, youth are able to build their skills and connect with other young people.

Another website mentioned was the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (www.youthaidscoalition.org). It’s another online social networking site, which focuses on connecting young people involved in HIV/AIDS work with other young leaders, mentors, AIDS organizations, and so on, and offers free monthly online workshops, such as project management, political advocacy, and grant proposal writing.

It was inspiring to see young people developing innovative new ways to support and educate each other about HIV/AIDS.  For example, people can post ideas on projects that they’ve worked on and talk about things that worked or didn’t work for them, while other people can post comments, ask questions, include feedback and get ideas for their own projects. It’s a medium for growth!

Now how can we apply this at ACT?  Well, something like this can be a tool for knowledge transfer and exchange, which is one of our top priorities as an agency devoted to empowering people living with and at risk for HIV/AIDS. 

Research materials come out all the time, but they need to be communicated to those who need them most, particularly frontline workers such as counsellors and health promotion coordinators, as well as their clients. How about posting a report/presentation/news article about a newly released research study online with feedback mechanism that allows people to post their comments and questions, or share their interpretation of/feelings about the study, or even discuss what they’re doing in response to it, ideas for practical applications, or, or, or… the possibilities are endless. 

We can learn a lot from each other.