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National Summit on HIV and Viral Hepatitis Convenes November 26-28 in Washington with Focus on Accelerating HIV and Viral Hepatitis Testing and Reducing Disparities in Care
WASHINGTON, DC (November 20, 2012) - At a time when the prevalence of HIV among some Americans rivals parts of sub-Saharan Africa and recorded deaths from chronic hepatitis C infection are steadily increasing, the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research will convene its 2012 National Summit on HIV and Viral Hepatitis Diagnosis, Prevention and Access to Care to intensify the nation's prevention, detection and treatment efforts.
Taking
place after new government guidelines call for expanded testing of HIV and the
hepatitis C virus (HCV) and accelerated use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in
everyone diagnosed with HIV, the 2012 National Summit on HIV and Viral Hepatitis Diagnosis, Prevention and
Access to Care (November 26-28, 2012 at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington) will
bring together an estimated 300 scientists, clinicians, public health leaders
and advocates to draw the roadmap for identifying and linking to care the
nearly one in five Americans with undiagnosed HIV - an estimated 258,000
people - and the more than 3 million
Americans with undiagnosed HCV.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), of the more than one million Americans now living with HIV, 35 percent to 45 percent develop AIDS within a year after diagnosis, indicating they were likely infected for many years without knowing it. Moreover, CDC estimates that expanded testing could identify 800,000 Americans with undiagnosed HCV and prevent more than 120,000 deaths.
"The
2012 National Summit is designed to create the pathway for accelerated adoption
of HIV and HCV testing and for increasing patients' access to care - two
strategies that will dramatically reduce infection and better support people
living with these diseases," said Veronica Miller, Ph.D., Director of the
Forum. "Our goal is to take up the current challenges presented by the HIV and
HCV epidemics to move the science of prevention, care and treatment forward."
Updated ART Guidelines Established Need to Treat Everyone with HIV
Laying the groundwork for the roundtable discussion, John G. Bartlett,
MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and co-chair of the Forum’s
Executive Committee, summarized the changing science on HIV transmission
since 2009 which resulted in the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) issuing new treatment guidelines that call for
accelerating the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in everyone
diagnosed with HIV. Moreover, the HHS Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines
for Adults and Adolescents, which Dr. Bartlett chairs, also calls for
the use of ART to prevent transmission of HIV from an infected
individual to a sexual partner, a strategy known as treatment as
prevention.
“The 2012 guidelines mark an important milestone in the treatment of HIV. After years of debate on when to initiate antiretroviral therapy, there is now scientific consensus that ART is an important strategy for reducing HIV transmission and should be made available to everyone, regardless of their CD4 count,” said Dr. Bartlett. “Based on what we know today, it can be argued that all patients diagnosed with HIV infection are candidates for ART.”
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Gives
National Address on HIV and HCV on November 26 at 6:15 PM
As final plans for implementing the remaining
provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) take shape, Health and Human
Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will give a national address on the
prospects for ACA to become a true "game changer" in expanding prevention, treatment and services for people with HIV
and viral hepatitis. Now that ACA has
expanded preventive services, including HIV screenings, to an estimated 54
million Americans, the HHS Secretary will look ahead to 2014 when the remaining
provisions go into effect and make it possible for people with HIV and viral
hepatitis to get stable healthcare coverage and access to ongoing prevention
services, chronic disease management, laboratory services and prescription drug
coverage.
Rep. Henry Waxman to Be
Honored; Will Discuss Policy Priorities on November 27 at 11:20 AM
One
of the summit highlights will be to recognize the efforts of Representative
Henry A. Waxman D-CA) in charting the nation's policy on HIV/AIDS, starting when
he convened the first Congressional hearings on AIDS in 1982. In honor of Congressman Waxman's role in
authoring the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act and
sponsoring numerous bills to fund HIV/AIDS research and education, National
Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci will present the 2012 C. Everett Koop HIV/AIDS Public Health Leadership Award to Rep.
Waxman at a special awards ceremony during the lunch plenary on November 27. Congressman Waxman will then address the
HIV/AIDS community on the immediate legislative priorities for improving HIV
outcomes.
Rhodessa
Jones, Cultural Odyssey Troupe to Perform on November 27 at 8 PM
Another summit highlight will be a performance by artist, singer and
writer Rhodessa Jones and The Medea
Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women addressing trauma, abuse, and HIV
infection in women. Developed in
conjunction with the Women's HIV Program (WHP) at University of California, San
Francisco, this very innovative and effective intervention for HIV-positive
women entails a year-long workshop where women write out
their personal stories and make known their HIV status in a public theatrical
performance called Dancing with the Clown
of Love.
Top Government Officials; HIV/HCV Experts to Speak at the Summit
Widely considered the premier venue for researchers, providers, advocates and policy makers to
discuss the current state of affairs and steps needed to eliminate the HIV and
HCV epidemics in the U.S., the 2012 National Summit will feature 165 scientific
abstracts that chart the wealth of ongoing efforts to support routine testing
and linkage to care.
In addition, the Summit will feature plenary sessions where some of the top government and scientific leaders will discuss the burden of HIV/AIDS and HCV in the U.S., the impact of the Affordable Care Act in increasing access to care for those infected with HIV and HCV and next steps in implementing the Obama Administration's National HIV/AIDS Strategy and Viral Hepatitis Action Plan. Highlights include:
Monday, November 26; 5:00 PM EST
- Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) presenting the latest epidemiological findings on the HIV and viral hepatitis epidemics and CDC's prevention priorities
-
Dr. Sarah Linde-Feucht , Chief Public Health Officer
at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) summarizing HRSA's
action plan to implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and the newly released Viral Hepatitis Action Plan
Tuesday, November 27; 1:00 PM EST
-
A panel discussion on opportunities and challenges
for states under the Affordable Care Act featuring:
- Jeffrey S. Crowley MPH Georgetown University's O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law
- Stephen L. Boswell, MD, President and CEO of Fenway Health
- Lynda Dee, JD, Founder and President of AIDS Action Baltimore
- Jennifer Kates, PhD, Vice President and Director of Global Health & HIV Policy, Kaiser Family Foundation
- Donna Sweet, MD, Board Chairman, American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM)
Wednesday, November 28; 9;10 AM EST
- John Ward, MD, Director of Director of the Division of Viral Hepatitis within CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) addressing the implementation of the new Viral Hepatitis Action Plan
- Grant Colfax, MD, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy charting the progress of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy at two years and next steps
- Jennifer Kates, PhD, Vice President and Director of Global Health & HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation on monitoring the impact of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and ACA on improving HIV care
- Myron S. Cohen, MD, Director, Center for Infectious Diseases at UNC's School of Medicine, discussing the new role of treatment as prevention
- Kevin G.M. Volpp, MD, Ph.D., founding Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the Leonard Davis Institute (LDI CHIBE),examining the role of behavioral economics in HIV and viral hepatitis treatment and prevention
-
A panel discussion on treatment as prevention
featuring:
- Myron S. Cohen, MD, Director, Center for Infectious Diseases at UNC's School of Medicine
- Jag H. Khalsa, MD, Chief, National Institute on Drug Abuse
- Henry Masur, MD, Chief of the NIH Clinical Center
- David L. Thomas, MD, MPH, Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- Daniel Raymond, HIV/AIDS treatment advocate
The Forum for Collaborative HIV Research designed the 2012 National Summit in partnership with the American Academy of HIV Medicine, amfAR, American Academy of Nurses, the Foundation for AIDS Research, the Hepatitis B Project, the Hepatitis Education Project, the HIV Medicine Association, Kaiser Permanente, National Association of Community Health Centers, National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition, the NIH Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, and the Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy at HHS.
Registration for the National Summit is complementary for members of the media. Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to register.
About the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research
Part of the University of California (UC), Berkeley School of Public
Health and based in Washington, DC, the Forum was founded in 1997 as the
outgrowth of a White House initiative. Representing government,
industry, patient advocates, healthcare providers, foundations and
academia, the Forum is a public/private partnership that organizes
roundtables and issues reports on a range of global HIV/AIDS issues.
Forum recommendations have changed the ways that clinical trials are
conducted, accelerated the delivery of new classes of drugs, heightened
awareness of TB/HIV co-infection, and helped to spur national momentum
toward universal testing for HIV. http://www.hivforum.org
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