I thought I would post a few pictures from the International AIDS Conference upon our return.  I still see wrap up and commentary news regarding the conference daily, which is exciting.  While much of the news stresses that the past couple years haven’t brought us any major ah-has in the world of clinical prevention of HIV or a “cure” for AIDS, what is exciting is the opportunity we have to not only continue to look, but to tie together prevention and treatment in ways we haven’t before.  I think this emphasis strengthens our work here at PARTNRS, as researchers working to inform future prevention efforts. On a lighter note, below is a picture of Trace in the latest PARTNRS ad campaign to promote condom use:

 

Cheers!

I stumbled upon an article in the science times which pointed out a study that was published in the August edition of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Researchers looked at expectant mothers whose addresses measured a specific distance near highways. While we are well aware that lower-income expectant mothers are much more vulnerable to more risk factors resulting in low birth weight, pre-term births and many other risks, Researchers found that more auspicious mothers-to-be are at a great risk for these factors because of living in a wealthy neighborhood close to a highway.

Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/health/12chil.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

As Trace and I wait for our flight back to the US from our trip to the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, I thought I’d  post a few thoughts I had after this experience.  It was really rewarding to be around people and chat with people who spoke a similar language. By language I don’t mean English–I am referring to the language around behavioral and prevention research.  The opportunity to articulate thoughts about PARTNRS research and learn about others research was outstanding.  Being in Mexico City has also motivated me to beef up on my Spanish a bit (or a lot!).  Overall, it’s been a great learning experience and I’m ready to keep learning!  Buenos tardes!

It has been a very exciting, stimulating, and tiring week here at the IAC. Conference going really wears one out (or maybe it just me). There is so much to see and so many exciting projects being implemented around the world that it is tough to keep up. There are an array of approaches to prevention and most can significantly impact our population of young couples. We can learn from studies  from a wide variety of settings and populations. An intervention of commercial sex workers in Bangladesh may have as much of an impact on how we approach prevention with our couples in Connecticut as a couples study in the U.S. does.  It reminds me  that we need to keep aware of all types of HIV prevention work because you never know what will teach and inspire us. In other conference happenings, Anna did a fabulous job on the first global presentation of PARTNRS work. The poster was great and well received. For those of you in the New Haven area, feel free to visit it in the Yale PARTNRS project offices, where it will be permanantly displayed starting Monday.

Trace and I just wrapped up our first full day at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Mexico!  We arrived yesterday afternoon along with a few other conference attendees–poster holders in hand–ready to hear about the latest and the greatest in HIV/AIDS research.  We headed to the conference site early this morning to map out our day.  We took in a few presentations regarding couples and HIV incidence, etc. to start–the energy is quite exciting.  This afternoon I spent a majority of my time standing by our Presence and Perception poster (see previous blog!), answering some questions and learning about others’ research.  In fact, a few posters down, a research team had looked at self risk perception among women as it related to sexual risk behavior.  Their findings concurred with ours–risk perception (self and partner in our case) was not significantly associated with risk behavior.  However, they added a twist–they found that the women’s report of their partner’s “dominating behavior” (ie. violence, coercion, etc.) was significantly associated with sexual risk behavior.  Our data could have some real insight into this topic since we get report from both sides of the partnership.  I had some time to peruse other posters and program stands, as well as head to the “Global Village” where even more programs had booths and there were some cultural performances.

Mexico City is quite interesting as well.  It’s quite a bit bigger than I had expected.  On the way to dinner tonight, we saw 2 large non-violent protests a few blocks from our hotel. 

 We’ve had a great start to our conference experience.  More to report soon!