www.hivandhepatitis.com

U.S. Conference on AIDS Focuses on Epidemic in the South

The annual U.S. Conference on AIDS (USCA 2013), sponsored by the National Minority AIDS Council, took place this week in New Orleans, highlighting the burgeoning HIV epidemic in the southern states. Other themes included the Affordable Care Act, HIV prevention, aging, and fighting HIV stigma and criminalization.

For nearly 2 decades, USCA has sought "to increase the strength and diversity of the community-based response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic through education, training, new partnerships, collaboration and networking," according to the NMAC conference website.

While other conferences focus on clinical trials of antiretroviral therapy and biomedical prevention, USCA emphasizes the social, economic, and cultural aspects of HIV/AIDS. This year's meeting drew more than 1700 stakeholders including public health workers, advocates, case managers, and medical providers, according to AIDS.gov.

The regional focus of this year's conference is timely, given the growing epidemic in the southeast. As a group, these states have large African-American populations, high rates of poverty, and are less likely to offer HIV and sex education for young people. In 2010 southern states accounted for nearly half of all new HIV infections, according to Paul Kawata of NMAC.

These states are also less likely to adequately fund their AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs) and are more likely to have indicated that they will not participate in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion. The ACA and how it will impact people living with HIV was the topic of a plenary session on Sunday featuring representatives from several federal agencies that will play a role in implementing the new law, as well as the closing plenary on Wednesday.

Along with its focus on health care access, the conference also featured sessions on high-impact HIV prevention, housing, nutrition, linkage to care, engagement and retention in care to successfully negotiate the "continuum of care," the role of drug policyreform in curbing the HIV epidemic, and an overview of the latest HIV treatment and cure research. Other sessions focused on specific affected populations including youth, women, men who have sex with men, transgender people, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans.

"We now have the tools to end the AIDS epidemic -- better diagnostic tools, better surveillance tools, better prevention tools, and now with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, better healthcare financing tools," said Phill Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute at a plenary session on The Engagement Challenge.

AIDS.gov provides a summary of highlights from each day of the conference:

• U.S. Conference on AIDS 2103 -- Highlights from Day 1
• U.S. Conference on AIDS 2103 -- Highlights from Day 2
• U.S. Conference on AIDS 2103 -- Highlights from Day 3
• U.S. Conference on AIDS 2103 -- Highlights from Final Day

9/11/13

Sources

Blog.AIDS.gov. U.S. Conference on AIDS 2103 -- Highlights from Day 1. September 9, 2013.

Blog.AIDS.gov. U.S. Conference on AIDS 2103 -- Highlights from Day 2. September 10, 2013.

San Francisco AIDS Foundation. United States Conference on AIDS Starts this Weekend. BETA Blog. September 4, 2013.