21st Annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research
CAHR 2012 - A Turning Point in the Fight against HIV: Meeting New Challenges
February 18, 2012 - The 21st Annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research - CAHR 2012 - will
be held April 19-22, 2012 at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth in Montréal, Quebec.
The theme of this year's Conference is "A Turning Point in the Fight against HIV: Meeting New Challenges". Thirty
years after the first reported case of AIDS, the epidemic has now reached a turning point. Due to the availability of effective
antiretroviral drugs, Canadians are now living longer with the virus, and thus are exposed to long-term drug toxicities. As
HIV infection becomes more like a chronic illness, there is a growing complacency among the general population and thus a
greater need for prevention strategies.
The challenge of researchers is to devise strategies that will increase treatment availability, make drugs less toxic,
address the complications of HIV and aging, and ultimately discover an effective vaccine. Special attention must be given to
vulnerable populations, such as injection drug users, women and Aboriginal Canadians. What are the social, financial and
emotional barriers that need to be removed in order to lessen the impact of the epidemic on these populations? As we
enter an exciting new era of treatment with more potent drugs for people co-infected with HIV and Hepatitis C, we
need to better understand what the barriers are to starting treatment for co-infected patients and to implement
new courses of action. With the increased effectiveness of HAART as prevention, legislation surrounding
criminalization should be reconsidered. This poses a new challenge for medicine and justice.
These new challenges are impacting all fields of research: clinical, social, epidemiology, and basic science.
We are at a turning point in this epidemic, and it is imperative that we go forward together to shape a future in which HIV
will be eradicated.
Once again, CAHR will have a stellar program of world-renowned speakers. Connect with researchers, frontline public health
and community-based workers, people living with HIV and AIDS and others interested in the field of HIV research in Montréal for CAHR 2012.
Attendees will meet to share the outcomes of new research; to honour new investigators and to acknowledge the achievements
of major contributors to the field; to discuss some of the wider issues related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; and to elect a Council to carry
on the work of the Association.
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For more information visit: CAHR 2012
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