2019 Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum set for 2 December in Kigali
Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - The 2019 Biomedical HIV Prevention forum, an international platform that creates a space to share different perspectives, experiences and opportunities to build networks that will make actors and players in the HIV prevention field even more effective will be held in Kigali on 2 December.
Organisers of the event said on Tuesday that it will take place ahead of the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA 2019).
Hosted by the Government of Rwanda, the forum centres on current efforts to stop the spread of HIV infection in Africa, attracting participants from different clusters including researchers, HIV prevention research advocates, communities, policymakers and development partners.
According to the organisers, topics to be discussed will range from population specific areas such as adolescents, women, and key populations to updates on biomedical HIV prevention research, combination prevention and sexual and, reproductive health and rights.
In Africa, health experts argue that for maximum impact, HIV prevention programmes need to be targeted at high prevalence regions or 'hot spots', and also meet the needs of high-risk groups.
Reports show that in 1990, when HIV became a global health epidemic, around 1.9 million people were newly infected.
In 1996, at the peak of the epidemic, 3.4 million new infections were recorded.
Since then, reports show that new infections have been slowly declining and fell by 16% between 2010 and 2018 during which around 1.7 million people were HIV positive.
-0- PANA TWA/AR 26Nov2019
