Collective Reflections on AIDS 2012: One Month Later - by Alana Black

Just one short month ago, thousands of scientists, policymakers, and activists--including a number of our very own MWPHA members--converged on the Walter E. Washington Convention Center for the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012). First held in 1985 in Atlanta, the once-annual and now-biennial meeting serves as a space for people in the global HIV/AIDS community to "assess where we are, evaluate recent scientific developments and lessons learnt, and collectively chart a course forward." 

A scene from the Global Village. (Floyd Little, Sr.)

Personally, I wasn't even aware of the true significance of having AIDS 2012 here until right before the conference started. (Bear with me, I am a relative public health newbie. I'm sure a fair share of you already knew why having the conference here was a big deal. But in case you didn't....) At meetings of the MWPHA Health Disparities Committee and in the media alike, people were emphasizing that it was the first time the International AIDS Conference had been held in the United States in twenty-two years. Once or twice, I wondered to myself why it had been so long since the conference had come stateside. I figured that the International AIDS Society chose to rotate locales often. Or maybe potential host countries and cities had to competitively bid, like with the Olympics. It wasn't until I decided to take a look online that I realized that for years, HIV-positive individuals were barred from visiting or immigrating to the United States, and that the ban had only been lifted officially in January 2010.

If I hadn't been hyped for AIDS 2012 before, I was then. Until my job called me away to go to another conference out of town for the bulk of that week. Sadly, I didn't get to squeeze in much more than a cursory lap around the Global Village--which was amazing, to say the least--before I left for my work trip. However, Karyn Pomerantz, chair of the MWPHA Health Disparities Committee, collected some committee members' impressions of AIDS 2012 at the August meeting that I will share below in a list.

According to Karyn, most AIDS 2012 participants at the Health Disparities meeting and those who had emailed her felt that the conference inspired them to become more active and introduced them to global issues. Other positive feedback focused on the following:

• Opportunities to learn from people from different countries and organizations represented in the Global Village and to participate in developing a skit about a mother and daughter with AIDS
• Great interactions between local and global groups
• The diversity and energy of the We Can End AIDS mobilization on July 24th—definitely a highlight for many MWPHA members; for example, one dressed as "Serena Syringe" attracted media to deliver her message on needle exchange
• Demonstrations at the conference directed at pharma, DC government, Global Fund

Individuals had criticism of AIDS 2012, as well:

• Many workshops were too basic
• Harm reduction does not address the need to prevent the conditions that lead to drug use or sex work.  More attention needed for harm prevention and elimination.
• In every transmission category, African, African American and other people of color bear the disproportionate burden of HIV, yet the conference did not mobilize people around fighting racism. 
• The conference was dishonest pushing the line that AIDS could end with just treatment instead of creating structural change and increasing funding.
• Many speakers proclaimed that we are ‘in the home stretch’ in ending AIDS, which is not true.  Over 26 million people need ARV medication while the goal is to add 8 million more people on meds. Pharma is fighting to keep drug prices high, and the United States supports damaging trade policies. 
•  Concerns about the Global Fund’s privatizing and reducing funding

Normally, when there is positive and then negative feedback, I prefer to mention the "bad" first, to get it out of the way. However, here, I don't think ending on a not-so-positive note is a downer, so to speak; instead, I think it gives us things to consider as individual public health workers and as an organization, especially those of us working in some way with HIV/AIDS.

Did you go to AIDS 2012? What were your experiences? Please share in the comments section of this post!

(Thank you, Floyd Little, Sr., for providing the image used in this post!)