Dr. David Miller, Head of the UNAIDS Office at Delhi pondered over the mike before he remarked, "I can never believe that in a few hours we will all be boarding a plane and flying off to Barcelona on the Spanish coast and that from tomorrow we will be part of the largest AIDS Conference ever held! Fifteen thousand delegates from hundred and fifty countries." The occasion was the Pre-departure briefing, the date was 5th July 2002, the audience was the members of the Indian delegation to the Conference and the venue was the air-conditioned Conference Hall at the UNDP Offices in Delhi. There is an air of bonhomie as we meet friends and exchange notes. There is Satheesh Chandran from SOMA an acronym for Society for Mental Health and Action based at Thiruvananthapuram; Rajeev Sadanandan whom I had known when he was the Health Secretary to the Government of Kerala; Elango Ramachandar of the Karnataka Network of Positive People; and Abraham Kurien the new President of the Indian Network of Positive People. As my memory seems to play truant with names, I walk up to a kind, familiar and elderly gentleman and introduce myself. Smiling, he said that he was Oscar Fernandes. I mumble pleasantries. How could I not recognize a Member of Parliament? I kick myself for not having asked some one earlier!
'Barcelona, capital of the autonomous region of Catalunya, is one of the most dynamic and exciting cities on the western Mediterranean seaboard in Spain. It is a city that is inconceivable until you get there, unbelievable, while you walk its streets and unforgettable after you have gone', informs the pocket guide which is part of the briefing kit given by UNAIDS. The main Conference venue is the Fira de Barcelona and the Indian delegation were to stay at the Hotel Gran Catalonia and the Hotel Rafael Diagonal Port. Mr. K. Pradeep of UNAIDS was already in Barcelona as part of the advance team to prepare for our arrival. Before long air tickets are distributed, currency exchanged and the briefing peters out into informal discussion interrupted by announcements and finally by safety advice. David recounted how Pradeep had the day before left a mobile on the table and its quick disappearance by the time he turned around. A haunting sense of déjà vu about the lady distributing our air tickets had been taunting my memory. I had given up trying to place where I had seen her when she introduces herself as Ms. Jothy. Suddenly all the broken memory lattice is built up again! She tries not to hurt me by saying that it had been four years since we last met. She was then Project Officer for the Prisons Project in Thiruvananthapuram. After an early dinner we troop out to the waiting bus, which drops us an hour later at the Delhi International Airport.
For this epic Conference there were sixty Key Correspondents (KCs) of whom I was one. They were selected from all corners of the globe over a six-month period. They were to critically review and highlight innovative projects or interesting issues that came out in the various sessions. Their write-ups would appear in the various HIV/AIDS e-forums and websites thus stimulating discussion among those who could not attend. I knew that on the following day after a daylong briefing by the Health and Development Networks Team, we would be designated the usual tasks of getting ten delegate interviews. I would be missing the briefing this time, as we would arrive at our hotel in Barcelona only by Lunch. So, I decided to start getting the delegate interviews right away as we waited at the Airport Lounge in Delhi! Thus, my first delegate was Anthropologist Sunil Menon who works for a Gay Project. This is a Community Based Organization called Sahodaran in the bustling city of Chennai in South India. His areas of work include counselling and outreach on psychosexual issues. A keen desire to share experiences and exchange views especially about Gays in the global level with special reference to religion has brought him to this Conference. Daisy David (female 35 years) is a married HIV positive who works for the Indian Network of Positive people (INP+) in the south Indian city of Chennai. Her strengths are mainly networking of positive groups and people, counselling and advocacy. She has come with a mission to voice the issues of stigma and discrimination at various forums that she plans to attend in this conference. She strongly feels that People with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) should get social acceptance from society. "Secondly PHAs have a right to life and therefore a right to access ARV therapy. People are not even allowing us to laugh", she concludes.
An Evening in Barcelona : It is four in the evening on the 6th July 2002 in Barcelona. We are members of the Indian delegation who had arrived here for the World AIDS Conference beginning on the morrow. Earlier about an hour after midnight, we had left Delhi behind and were zipping through the night skies, courtesy Swiss Air. At this unearthly hour we were served dinner and it was nearly half-past two in the morning when I curled up on a couple of vacant seats to catch my forty winks. We changed flights at Zurich and had landed in Barcelona Airport just before noon. The airport lies fourteen kilometers southwest of the city centre at El Prat de Llobregat and very close to the coastline. At the Hotel Gran Catalonia all of us partook of refreshments at the lounge and bar. The Minister of Health from Manipur, leaves his briefcase by a sofa, picks up a glass from a side-table and returns to find that his briefcase has disappeared with passport, air tickets, cash, et al. This was never recovered. It is our first experience of which we had been adequately forewarned.
After a short rest, it is time for the evening city tour and we are all in the bus arranged by UNAIDS. The bus takes us past the Courte Ingles a large departmental store. Then around a couple of corners and we are introduced to Barcelona's most famous and brilliant modernist architect, Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926). He built his best works in the city. We pass by his Casa Mila La Pedrera on Passeig de Gracia. The whole building restored with calcium mortar of the original, has around it a dreamlike air. The metalwork on the balconies, door and the artifact style of the rooftop and chimneys exude a medieval charm. The modernist lampposts on the road are also Gothic. Next we drink in the myriad colors of the enchanting collage of Gaudi's favorite materials at the Casa Batllo. Following the recurring Catalan Nationalist theme of St. George and the Dragon, the roof uses glazed ceramic 'scales', as the cross can be discerned piercing the dragon's backbone, while the eerie balconies are the bones of the victims! The Guide rolls out the Spanish names and history of the buildings. The ceramic tiled roof, mosaic façades, the curved shapes and anthropomorphic blends makes them seem like large eerie playhouses. I feel that Life must be one whole dream to live in them. The bus climbs up the closely built up hill and near its top we are at the Park Guell. From the benches to the porticoes, organic forms and the conspicuous absence of straight lines etches Gaudi's signature all over the place. The Park Guell is a great place to get a good view of Barcelona cradled between the two hills and the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. We spend a couple of hours walking around, taking in the panorama. From the Park the bus rolls down to Gaudi's Cathedral Sagrada Familia or the Holy Family Temple. Started over hundred years ago and yet still less than half completed it is undoubtedly Barcelona's most readily identifiable building. We walk around the two facades - the Passion and the Nativity and marvel at the contrasting contributions from different sculptors. Next is the drive beside the Gothic Quarter and the remains of the Roman fortifications are shown to us. Then, down we go to the popular beaches in the Olympic Village and Port area. Here Barcelona's two skyscrapers, the Hotel Arts and the Mapfre office building dominate the skyline. The Aquarium, the largest in Europe, the IMAX cinema, the music halls, bars, clubs, pubs and discos drag out half the occupants of the bus. It is just half-past nine, local sunset time and the exciting nightlife has just begun!
The bus goes to La Ramblas the shopping and tourist area of Barcelona. Daisy, Abraham, Sunil and me get off from the bus, have dinner and proceed to the Conference center at Fira de Barcelona. Here, the fountains lining the road on both sides and a large musical one in front of the Palace at the end of the road lends a festive atmosphere. At the entrance to the Conference Registration section, a young lady walks up to me and asks me where I come from? "India", I reply. But she persists, "Where in India?" That was unusual because people are usually satisfied with the first reply. "Why? Kerala", I almost ask back in reply. But she did not give up, "Where in Kerala?" she continued. Before I could reply "Munnar", she asked me whether I was not Rafique. We had not met before and then it all came in a flash. "Valsa, Valsa Madhava!" I almost shouted guessing. Valsa is the Attending Physician in Internal Medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York and had a long chat with me on the telephone a week ago during her holiday at her family house in Cochin. Abraham and Sunil depart to the University where they are put up for the Conference, while Daisy and me accompany Valsa to the Espanya Metro Station. I was still trying to decipher the green and red routes and the station that I would have to get off, when Daisy beside me screams and catches a stranger red-handed with his hand in her bag! I grab his hands and force him to show us. He knows only Spanish and we let him go after he shows us his mobile and small change that he had been hiding. As we go to the platform from the turnstiles some Pakistani young men tell me in Urdu to be careful or that I would be robbed. The train arrives and as we embark four men also enter. One lifts up my pants, holds my legs, grovels on the floor, hollering incomprehensible Spanish all the time. Others are pushing against me. I am trying to figure out what is happening, when Valsa yells to be careful of my pockets. I grab them then along with the two bags containing the cameras that I am holding. Suddenly, the men disappear up the stairs as fast as they had come and the train starts immediately. It is my first experience at mugging. I check my belongings as does Valsa and Daisy and we learn that all we have lost was one water bottle! Daisy and me get off at Catalunya station and walk to the Hotel. It is nearly Midnight. It had been a long but thrill-filled evening in Barcelona.
The next morning I register at the Conference Center and spend the good part of an hour finding out where the Press and Media Rooms are in Palacio Five. In the process I meet Monreudee Laphimon, Project Officer of HDN. We had met first six months ago at the 5th Home and Community Care Conference in Chiang Mai. At the entrance to the exhibits I spy Dr. Anthony's familiar back and hurry after him. He introduces me to Neeraj Mistry, Technical Advisor and to Ben Plumley, Executive Director of the Global Business Coalition on AIDS at their stall, which is not far from the stall for the XV AIDS Conference at Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Anthony has brought along a contract that I was to sign. This would assist the next phase of the Workplace Interventions in Tata Tea that was to start within a month, in tandem with the MacArthur Foundation funding a similar project for the Tata Group. Ms. Dymphna Kenny comes along and Dr. Anthony once again performs the introductions. The Academy of Educational Development had done a case study on Workplace Interventions in Asia and both our projects had been the chosen ones. Over tea, Anthony, Dymphna and me discuss about which presentations on Workplace Interventions that we would attend. We are dismayed to find that there is one another presentation on the same subject at the same time as mine. By the time I reach the Press and Media Rooms, the morning briefing is just over and the HDN Team is about to leave to the Broadcast center. I catch up with Tim France, the Head, Cheryl Nelson, the KC Coordinator, and Manju Chatani, along with whom I would be in charge of Track D. As I had guessed the tasks had been ten delegate opinions. All the way to the Registration and Speaker's Centre once more and I do a couple of more delegate interviews. John Sunder Singh a thirty two year old young man works for the Care and Support Project called Palmyra Workers Development Society (PWDS). This is a lead partner for HIV Alliance in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India. John is all enthusiasm and eagerness to learn about the failures and success stories of others. Isabelle Rosalie Detoh (F 29) from the Cote D´ Ivoire has come to Barcelona for her first International Aids Conference. A Pharmacist by profession at the CMI - indenie Medical Center, she is at Barcelona to learn all that is new in the detection of HIV, newer ARVs, especially the generic ones.
After Lunch we troop to the Hall 2B for the India Satellite where Participants had filled the hall and the corridor too! Dr. Subhashree Raghavan, Moderator of the Solidarity Against the HIV infection in India (SAATHI) begins the proceedings, after a long wait for the Health Minister's arrival. David Miller made a presentation on the HIV/AIDS situation in India, which mentioned the challenges and the solutions that may probably work out well in changing the present trends. The challenges and methods to overcome these for UN support were detailed. His last word like his first was motivating Urgency in all sectors. In the next few presentations speakers like the Director of NACO, and the various Ministers of the State and Parliament were mostly emphasizing the points already covered by David, or those that have been heard at previous conferences or meetings. Prohibitive cost was the reason given out for no ARV program for the PHAs. However the Government would promote the units producing ARV and also reduce prices of ARVs. This evoked protests from the Positive groups who were of the opinion that care was one arm of prevention and one could not implement prevention programs as stand-alone ones. Abraham Kurien wearing the clothes of departed Ashok Pillai who had died with a CD4 count of 50, made tribute to his friend. Never afraid to tell the truth Ashok Pillai had even been angry at the system for its inaction. An emotional plea for the treatment cause was falling on deaf ears. Jayasudha's eulogy was presented by her friend Kausalya, while Vivek Anand of Hamsafar presented that of Vasanthy's. These had the same refrain of access to care as the main hurdle.
Back home I pen a few lines that is published in [SAATHII] e-forum as:
Memorial to Ashok, Jayasudha and Vasanthi:
At Hall 2B on a warm July afternoon
The room was small, but it was warm
People gathered for a Memorial
Every heart rapped the drum beat of support
To honor the memory of those Indians lost:
Ashok Pillai, Jayasudha, Vasanthi Shetty,
Their fixed smiles were warmer
Though it was from the walls decorated by their friends;
Ever-departed they smiled silently from the table on the corridor
Where the lamp lighting ceremonies had to be held
Were they smiling at our grand words and grander service?
Of which they had long been fed up?
Or were they smiling at the system that we were part of
That did not help solve their problems?
Or was it that they had at last attained in death
Their freedom from the struggle against HIV and AIDS?
For answers little will we know
For the departed little have we done.
For the Ashoks and Jayasudhas still withering
We pledge to act and so guard what we say
Our talk as transient as the incense rising hesitantly in the air
Hesitant we are and say not boldly that I tried and failed...
Many more are the Ashoks unsung
Still many more the Vasanthis unheard
The pandemic's ravages continues unchecked
And many more are the millions unprotected, untreated, uncared and yet to come.
How many more would have to succumb
From among those whom we see
And therefore we know...
But from among those unseen for whom we feel
The pain is more
For our mind is not distracted by any smiling images
And only the imaginings of the sufferings remain
Etched in most poignant details
Long after the brave end had come.
Imagine how if we know them all
Hall 2B nor all the walls of the Fira de Barcelona
Would not be enough to hold their snaps!
At least then should we hear
What their silent voices have to say.
"Overview at the National level in the Business Sector: Are they serving their employees?", was the title of a short presentation made by me at the Satellite India Conference. Access to care and support remains limited because of the cost of the required therapy. Care and Support is a comprehensive service, which requires a multidisciplinary approach in order to be acceptable and successful. The organization that initiates such a project needs to acquire the participation and commitment of all external government departments, institutions and organizations working in that community so as to provide support to the community in its endeavours. The planners will be challenged to change a scenario which still sees most of the national programmes operating according to the old paradigm that focuses primarily on prevention despite the experience just across the western seas in Africa, which shows the urgent need for balanced integrated prevention, care and support programmes. The most important and urgent need for Indian Business is to get together under a common network or coalition so that they could benchmark practices, document best and worst practices, have inter-organizational collaboration and technical guidance on project management, Workplace Interventions, Strategies and consultations. However so far there has hardly been any effort in this regard. The CII claims to have worked with 1700 companies in the past years, but sadly nothing of this has been made public. The ILO has documented the best practices in Workplace Interventions of ten Indian Organizations and it plans to distribute this book and CD to most Indian CEOs. However the collective effort with the necessary policies at a national level, which is urgently required, is yet to materialize. Only this will meet the special needs of workers because organizations however committed to this end cannot address this task alone, as the problem is primarily one of sharing and cooperation. Revitalization of the National Coalition to implement the Biz and AIDS Programs acquires a key significance in this regard.
We are already way behind time as we rush to join the Conference Opening Ceremony at the Puala Jarda, a large covered stadium. The gigantic futuristic Olympic sculptures on the grounds pierce the clear evening skies. We enter and soon an impressive performance begins. An AIDS virus balloons to occupy almost the entire stage. Members of a Mediterranean cultural troupe crawl out from under it and use their dance to build the Conference Logo and theme. Among the distinguished guests speakers were Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, Dr. Stefano Vella, President of the International AIDS Society, and a few Spanish Public Officials. Fifteen thousand candles glitter to dispel the gloom within as a lone musician plays the theme tune. While Videos of positive voices from around the world were imbibed by the audience with rapt attention and due decorum, that of a lady Official's speech is drowned out by whistles. The audience had no doubt been well prepared. There is a reception immediately following the Opening Ceremony, with musical entertainment, and the Catalan spectacle of human towers.
Monday July 8, finds me early enough to catch up with HDN's debriefing, watch the Plenary on the TV in the Press Room beside the PCs where we work. Modern technology had made physical access to Conference rooms redundant. Another maiden experience for me is official webcasts which offer the possibility of hearing and seeing the congress sessions via the internet as the original audience did though it is forty-eight hours after. Yet one gets a full audio and video recording with synchronized slide presentations allowing it to be viewed on a PC with an internet connection whenever and wherever one wants. Yes. Rapporteurs could catch up with what they missed if they did nod off! Moreover transcripts of the plenary sessions are available in the Press Room before the actual event. I write out the delegate interviews and submit them before the morning deadline and rush off to the Posters on Communication and Education in HIV Prevention that I had volunteered to cover.
"Connecting and Confining Informal communication and the spread of HIV/AIDS - A poster presentation" is rivets my attention not only with it's verbosity and convolutions in it's statements but also with a glaring contradiction in the conclusion. It is here that the author commits a precise hara-kiri in his attempt at first to raise informal communication networks above the conventional ones and then to drop it as something too hot to handle when informal communication tends to digress into issues other than HIV/AIDS! It was a pity that the author was nowhere near the poster during the time given for meeting, for me to buttonhole him and it is amazing how these unproved theories are displayed for public consumption.
After Lunch I write out a short report of the session that I covered in the Satellite India Conference. Before I could do the accompanying photographs I have to return to the Hotel Gran Catalonia for the India Evening Meeting organized by UNAIDS. Dr. David Miller was just finishing his introductory remarks as Ishdeep and me enter and I straight away start taking photographs. Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, the new Director of NACO makes the same presentation she made at the Satellite India Conference a couple of days ago. Dr. Peter Piot addressed the gathering on the challenges for India in the days ahead and handed over documented Indian studies got from David Miller to India's new Health Minister, Shatrughan Sinha. Abraham Kurien President of INP+ spoke on the role of people living with HIV in India. Mr. Shatrughan Sinha acknowledged that care and treatment were a necessary part of an appropriate response to HIV in India. There were strident demands from the Positive women in the room. Daisy David shouted, "We want drugs. Here in Barcelona we see that so many people in these countries get free drugs. We also deserve to live. Having HIV is not a sin." Kausalya, Padmaja and Ananthy Yuvraj chipped in with their support to Daisy. Mrs. Rabia Mathai, Director of Programs in the Catholic Medical Mission Board wanted to know why there was hardly any representation from the Youth. The meeting over, I chat with Rabia Mathai whom I am meeting after nearly five years. Soon Mr. P.S. Ghatowar, Member of Parliament and Secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party join us. We drop into a nearby Chinese Restaurant for dinner.
The next day Tue July 9, the good dinner has not watered down my vitriolic comments about the poster which I write being sure that it would not be published. However, the morning's edition of the Conference Newspaper displays all the Delegate Opinions that I had submitted. Daisy, Sunil, Dymphna and the Isabelle were obviously going to be a happy lot. By then its time for me to rush for the Oral Abstract session on STD Treatment for HIV Prevention in Hall 2:3. The session started with the presentation of how "STD declines in a South African Mining community following addition of periodic presumptive treatment (PPT) to a community HIV prevention project" by G. Neilsen. The next topic, "Rapid and sustainable reductions in curable STDs among urban sex workers in the Philippines " was also presented by G. Neilsen. Both showed the usefulness of PPT. Dawit Wolday, next presented "The Impact of Syndromic Treatment of STDs on Cervical Shedding of HIV-1". "Effective treatment of STDs along with other STD control measures, such as condom use and safe sex counseling, might be expected to have an impact on both STDs and HIV control", he concluded. 'The role of private sector healthcare in treating STDs in Kenya', was the topic for Bruce Mackay of the Futures Group. His study revealed that Private providers are important in treating STI so they should be trained and not just in diagnosis. Not the quacks. "Private health care is private first and healthcare second - this is a market we are dealing with. People with STIs are also consumers, while providers are also in business." he stated in conclusion. Syndromic Treatment for Sexually Transmitted Infections: A survey of Western Cape Community Pharmacists, was the paper next presented by Kim Ward. Whether pharmacists can fill in the role for Syndromic management was the query that Kim sought to answer with her study. She concluded that including pharmacists as a source of treatment for STI through a change in regulations and through provision of clinical training, is a step in the right direction.
After Lunch, I download the photographs taken of the India Satellite Conference from the camera to the PC and submit them after putting in the captions, along with my write up. By the time I enquire other Indian KCs namely Ishdeep and Shyamala Natraj the names of the Indian dignitaries appearing in the snaps it is time for my second presentation in the Satellite Symposium entitled, "Meeting the Challenge of Stigma and Discrimination: New Paradigms for Civil Society". "No company has done enough to overcome the epidemic. People in power are victims too. Last year when we were preparing for the special session on the UNGASS, there were statements on rights, stigma and discrimination" said Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS as he inaugurated this session. "Discrimination stories dealing with HIV and AIDS have become universal. Many have been documented. One should persuade Leaders to speak on these issues. It does not cost a penny" he continued. He admitted that there was no systematic, active strategy to fight against stigma and discrimination and that UNAIDS has failed to come up with such a strategy. He added that ninety percent of HIV/AIDS proposals have a final paragraph on strategies to address stigma and discrimination and some even include a budget. However it was mostly lip service. Awareness building, preventive messages and the importance given to this by the country and community leaders remain the effective strategies of the day. Presenting the "Strategies to Address Stigma and Discrimination in the Workplace", I began with the comprehensive HIV/AIDS policies implemented by Tata Tea. By incorporating the policies with the Brand-Equity of the Company, it was made sure that every one in Tata Tea implemented it. The main issues and strategies in Stigma remained: inclusion, quality of life, continuum of care, PLHA as key stakeholders, orphans and vulnerable children, care for care givers, networking, acceptance and solidarity. However, HIV/AIDS-related stigma seriously impedes and challenges each of these and poses a barrier to effective care and support programmes. Most of the infected have had to retreat underground because of entrenched stigmatization and discrimination which impact more acutely in small and close societies such as the ones in most Business Organizations. In work places supervisors make HIV positive redundant by making sure they have almost nothing to do but small boring duties. Most often the diagnosis is done outside the organization for fear of Company records. Stigma travels faster than time. A worker's reputation/status reaches his place of transfer/workplace much before he actually arrives there. The health care facility in the community is poorly patronized as people fear being labeled as HIV infected if they visited the facility. Whatever the reasons, this stigma must stop. The best solutions to a problem come from the people who are experiencing the problem. The Organizational Strategies must ensure essential HIV diagnosis and follow-up care and counseling are available, in order that individuals can learn of their HIV serostatus and have support to disclose to family members. Raise awareness so that families and communities can be involved in new interventions, such as prevention of parent-to-child-HIV transmission with linkage to care and support services. Regional and national awards for outstanding work in HIV/AIDS should be instituted. The Health Care Strategies should encourage practical and attitudinal HIV-related training for all health care providers. Scale up provision of PLHA-friendly health services, including voluntary counseling and testing and care and support services. Compassion, understanding, kindness, a positive attitude, information giving, care and support suited to individuals, enabling environment, empathy, and selflessness et al. The Employers Strategies involve building skills and capacity for CEOs, Top and Senior Management Staff, communicators and people working in the field of HIV and AIDS. Promote the gospel, " value every life, honour every death." The PLHA Strategies include that of countering self-stigma, using self-counselling by learning to talk to yourself and counsel yourself. When the going is tough do not leave for another place but fight for the sake of those who will come after you. Not to fall into traps of those advocating fake cure. PWHA would also be valuable as post-test counsellors. Within Companies everything works down the lines i.e. form top to bottom. Companies are very wary of side-stepping, cutting corners with the National Companies Act or National Factories Act. Therefore, how about forming new laws about minimum holistic care and support programs that companies should implement and integrate in its existing health care programs. Negotiating with the anti-retroviral drug producing companies seeking reduced prices for medications would form the extra-organizational strategies. All this effort may not bear fruits overnight: change is a slow process, and changing community organizational and official attitudes particularly so. It requires patience, endurance, commitment and sustained multi-sector approach.
Wednesday July 10, I am early at the HDN debriefing after which Manju and me meet with Dr. George W. Rutherford, and his team of Conference Rapporteurs for Track D. Dr. George is the Professor of Epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. It soon becomes apparent to Manju and me that this Rapporteur Team does not need any extra help from the corresponding HDN - KCs of Track D, whom we represented. "Antiretroviral Therapy Issues in Experienced Patients" is a session that I volunteered to attend and report for that day. I go in early, interview the presenting authors and find that most of them are from developed countries have presented many papers in the same conference on different results of the same work that they are doing. This is where I could take a leaf from their book. The session is too technical for me and I console myself that it must be because I have had no experience with ARVs. In the afternoon I do the write ups for rest of the session that I had presented.
Thursday, July 11, 2002 : Today is like a last working day for me and the session that I volunteer to cover is on "HIV Counselling and Testing". The presentations are lucid and the one I liked most was, "High HIV prevalence among patients choosing anonymous testing" which was presented by A. Sasse. The analysis showed that new HIV diagnosis was highest with people from Sub-Saharan Africa. The conclusion was that persons tested anonymously were at higher risk of infection. Anonymity was important for men who have sex with men and for young people below twenty years.
Conclusion In the afternoon we watch in the Press Rooms Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and the others give their well-rehearsed speeches and answers to the members of the Media, as we finish and file our reports. Outside I meet Stu Flavell, Head of the Global Positive Network and we talk of his health. He has just had a miraculous recovery from a CD4 count of barely double figures. We can't help but hug affectionately as we part. It is the last day of the Conference for the HDN-KCs. Tomorrow would be the closing ceremony and then the next day we would be winging back home on the sky roads!
