INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Complacency will cause resurgence of AIDS, experts warn
Amsterdam — A world AIDS assembly in Amsterdam is hoping to harness the star power of activists Elton John and Prince Harry to bolster the battle against an epidemic experts warn may yet spiral out of control. Thousands of researchers, campaigners, activists and people living with HIV arrived on Monday for the 22nd International AIDS Conference. Experts warned that new HIV infections, while down overall, have surged in some places as global attention has waned and funding levelled off. Too sharp a focus on virus-suppressing treatment may have diverted attention from prevention programmes such as condom distribution, with the result that HIV is still spreading easily among vulnerable groups. "The encouraging reductions in new HIV infections that occurred for about a decade has emboldened some to declare that we are within reach of ending AIDS," Peter Piot, researcher and founder of the UNAIDS agency, said last week. But "there is absolutely no evidence to support this conclusion", he...
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