National Conference on Research in HIV & AIDS is to be inagurated to day

[Guest guest]

THREE DAY NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN HIV/AIDS

A three day National Conference on Research in HIV & AIDS is being

organized in New Delhi from tomorrow (21-23 April, 2006). The

conference, being inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for

Health & Family Welfare Ms. Panakaba Lakshmi, is to review and

identify bottlenecks in HIV & AIDS research in India. The national

event provides a forum for sharing innovative ideas and to discuss

various aspects of research in HIV & AIDS.

The conference has three main areas of focus. Firstly it targets on

Communications, Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, secondly on

Biomedical Research and lastly on Programmes Research.

About 630 delegates are participating in the conference. It will

identify gaps in HIV & AIDS research, and formulate priorities and

strategies to fill the gaps.

BACKGROUND

India has the second largest estimated number of persons infected

with HIV. It also has one of the largest and most complex National

HIV Control Programmes in the world trying to protect 1.1 billion

people from the ravages of this epidemic. The NACO, 38 AIDS Control

Societies, hundreds of NGOs, Blood Banks, and Hospitals actively

participate in this initiative.

The pace of growth of the epidemic and its changing face

necessitates consolidation and generation of information that could

feed into programme. NACO felt the need to create a " National

Platform " where key stakeholders could share their experiences,

exchange ideas, come together in interest groups and have a sense of

belonging to a giant effort. NACO also sees a need for not only

bringing together the best examples as well as the findings of

research / Operations Research in various areas of the HIV control

effort, but to give a focus and direction to research so that this

can help develop more effective control measures.

CONFERENCE OBJECTIVES

The Objectives of the Conference are:

To take stock of cutting edge HIV/AIDS research in India and to

identify gaps and problems.

To provide a platform for sharing and stimulating innovative and

multi-disciplinary research ideas.

To stimulate capacity in the country in areas like proposal writing,

research methodology, reporting research work, and presentations at

International conferences.

THE PROCESS

Various committees have been constituted for organizing the

conference. They are: Organising Committee, Advisory Committee,

Scientific Committee, Finance Committee, Scholarship Committee and

Media Committee.

The organizing committee met several times initially to finalise the

timelines & activities and plan out the conference details. The

scientific committee was constituted on the advice of the organizing

committee to review the abstracts for the conference.

In response to the brochures sent out to various

institutions/organizations, advertisements placed in the newspapers

and on list servers related to AIDS and Health, the secretariat had

received approximately 600 abstracts. These were forwarded to the

scientific committee for review.

The conference has three main areas. They are:

Track A – Communications, Behavioural and Social Sciences Research

Track B - Biomedical Research

Track C - Programmes Research

150 of the submitted abstracts have been selected for presentation

at the conference, based on the criteria developed by the scientific

committee.

Based on the recommendation of the scientific committee, a total of

100 people have been selected for providing scholarships to attend

the conference.

Approximately 630 people have registered for the conference.

Registration fee received from 127 participants.

Skill building sessions during the conference are being organized by

NARI, TISS, JNU, and Population Council. Satellite sessions are

being organized by Population Council, NARI, INP+ and IIHMR. They

have specified the areas on which they would like to organize their

sessions. The following agencies and companies have confirmed

putting up stalls at the conference venue: Clinton Foundation, B &

D, SNS Foundation, West Bengal SACS, NIS Sparta, Roche Diagnostics

and Population Council.

The abstracts to be included in the abstract book have been edited

and are ready to be printed.

OUTCOMES

The conference is expected to stimulate research in the area of

HIV/AIDS. One of the expected outcomes of the conference is to

identify the research gaps, prioritise the research and formulate

strategies accordingly.

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