22nd February, 2019
The International AIDS Society (IAS) has appointed five leaders in HIV prevention research, implementation and advocacy as Co-Chairs for the HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) conference.
This is contained in a statement signed by Mandy Sugrue, IAS Communications Director and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on Thursday.
The five include Linda-Gail Bekker, Pontiano Kaleebu, Sheena McCormack, David O’Connor and Mitchell Warren.
HIVR4P conference is the world’s only scientific meeting dedicated exclusively to biomedical HIV prevention.
Sugrue said that the newly appointed leaders would co-chair the fourth biennial HIVR4P 2020 conference scheduled to hold in Cape Town, South Africa.
He quoted Anton Pozniak, IAS president, as saying the IAS has assumed the role of HIVR4P conference secretariat as part of its collaboration with the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, which organised the first three HIVR4P conferences.
“Since 2014, the biennial HIVR4P conference has brought together leaders in every field of biomedical HIV prevention from vaccines to PrEP to emerging, long-acting strategies.
“The gathering aims at addressing both cross-cutting challenges in the field as well as the research, policy and implementation issues specific to each prevention approach,” IAS President said.
Pozniak said with the outstanding Co-Chairs, HIVR4P 2020 would continue to be one of the most innovative, integrated and collaborative conferences in the field.
Also, Kevin Osborne, IAS Executive Director, said IAS is excited to take on the role of secretariat for HIVR4P 2020 at this critical moment in HIV prevention research and implementation.
Sugrue said that the appointed co-chairs would guide the development of HIVR4P 2020 conference scheduled to hold from Oct. 11 to 15, 2020.