Reported from Washington, D.C. for Cleveland.com (The Plain Dealer): http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2012/07/international_aids_conference.html
By Casey Capachi
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Our nation’s capital was adorned with red ribbons to promote HIV/AIDS awareness on Sunday as an estimated 23,000 people came to D.C. from all over the world for the 19th International AIDS Conference.
For the first time in 22 years, the world’s largest AIDS conference has returned to the US, following the lifting of the ban against HIV-positive people from entering the country in 2009 by President Barack Obama.
Conference officials said they were pleased to bring the conference back to the US where it first began in Atlanta in 1985 during a dark time of the disease before life-saving HIV medication was available. The last time the conference was held in the US was in San Francisco in 1990.
Sunday was the first day of the week-long conference, which takes place every two years. The “Keep the Promise on HIV/AIDS” rally and march kicked off the gathering with a performance by Wyclef Jean and speeches by activist Cornel West and comedian Margaret Cho.
There were several sessions on new research during the day before the opening ceremony began at 7 p.m. In the evening, doctors, politicians, advocates and those living with HIV spoke to the crowd about renewing their commitment to preventing the spread of HIV and fighting for better care and access for those affected.
“The truth is we’ve been turning back the tide on AIDS for 30 years,” said Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, speaking to the crowd on the theme of the conference, Turning the Tide Together. “As I look at you today. I can actually see the end of AIDS.”
The crowd applauded loudly for a young woman, Ebube Francis Taylor of Nigeria, when she asked those attending to help other children be born HIV-free just like her. She thanked the American people for helping keep her HIV-positive mother, standing beside her, alive.
“I don’t understand why other children are still born with the virus, why children don’t have treatment and their mothers are still dying of AIDS,” said Taylor.
“Please, I am begging you. Let us make this world an AIDS-free generation. Let’s make it a reality.’’
To watch webcasts of the week’s major speakers and sessions, visit the Kaiser Family Foundation’s website.
To sign the Washington D.C. Declaration, a pledge to expand the global AIDS fight, visit their website.
Follow Plain Dealer reporter Casey Capachi at the International AIDS Conference on Twitter: @caseycapachi