AIDS at 25

...from a non-attendee.

As Hannah and Lindsay (and others around the blogosphere and news media) submitted their stories from the front lines, so to speak, a few things jumped out at me regarding how this conference seems to be a bit different from the ones I've attended.

Scientific conferences vary widely with respect to size. I've been to some national meetings where it's a very small niche, and there were just a few hundred people in attendance. (And of course, some local meetings are lucky if a hundred people show up). This was an international meeting on a very noteworthy topic, so the size reported (~20,000) is in line with that. That's pretty closely in line with the annual meetings of the American Society for Microbiology (technically a national meeting, but always draws many international researchers).

However, there are many notable differences between this week's AIDS conference and the annual ASM meeting. First, obviously, is the sheer amount of coverage in the press. While some talks and research news do occasionally get highlighted from ASM's conference, it's nothing like I saw this past week. Second, and most striking, is the level of involvement from celebrities and politicians. Much was made regarding Canadian Prime Minister Harper's absence from the conference. This is only notable because so many other politicians and celebs were their to affirm their committment to AIDS relief; this is something one defintely doesn't see at ASM, for a few reasons. One, that we're not focused on a single infectious disease, but on all of them; and two, because there's just not a lot of celebrity influence regarding most infectious diseases. Few notables here in the US speak out about TB, or malaria, or even growing threats like antibiotic-resistant staph. It's just not sexy.

But, neither do many of these diseases carry the stigma that HIV/AIDS still does--which is why Harper's no-show makes headlines. I think it's important to keep emphasizing the message that this is a critical worldwide problem, and that no one deserves to be treated as a second-class citizen merely because they have been diagnosed with HIV. So, the International AIDS conferences can keep their celebrities and I'll be content that, although my work doesn't garner quite so much attention, neither does it cause so much stigma for those who are affected.