Mogae set for Mexico's AIDS 2008

| Thursday July 24, 2008 00:00

 

The conference will draw around 25,000 participants from across the globe, including many world-renowned leaders and experts in their field.

AIDS 2008 will officially open on the evening of August 3 by Mexican President, Felipe Caldern Hinojosa. Other opening session speakers include Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, Mexican Secretary of Health, Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Mony Pen, Asian activist and advocate for the rights of HIV-positive women around the world, Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, former President of Botswana, Festus Gontebanye Mogae and Mara Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, First Vice-President of Spain.

Joining this illustrious group of world leaders will be 12-year-old Keren Gonzalez. Ms Gonzalez hails from Honduras, and has been actively involved in a number of HIV-related programmes aimed at young people since the age of nane, including acting as editor for the magazine, Infantil LLAVECITAS, aimed at children aged eight to 12 years affected directly and indirectly by HIV/AIDS.

The following day on  August 4, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation, will address a session titled HIV/AIDS and Health System Reform: Achieving Universal Coverage, featuring the President of the Carso Health Institute and Senior Fellow of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Julio Frenk.

On Wednesday August 6, Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will join Peter Piot (UNAIDS), Mark Harrington  of the Treatment Action Group, USA, Vuyiseka Dubula of Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa and Frika Chia Iskandar Asia Pacific Network of People Living with AIDS, Indonesia, to look towards the HIV epidemic in 2031 and new directions in AIDS research.

AIDS 2008 will close on Friday, August 8 with presentations by Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Marcelo Ebrard, the Mayor of Mexico City.

AIDS 2008 will be held at Centro Banamex in Mexico City from August 3 to 8, 2008. The conference theme of Universal Action Now emphasises the need for continued urgency in the worldwide response to HIV/AIDS, and for action on the part of all stakeholders.
AIDS 2008 is convened by the International AIDS Society (IAS), the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals. Local partners include the Federal Government of Mexico, the Government of Mexico City and local scientific and community leadership.

International institutional partners for AIDS 2008 include: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and its co-sponsors, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Food Programme (WFP); International Council of AIDS Service Organisations (ICASO); Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+)/International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW); World YWCA; and the Asian Harm Reduction Network (AHRN)