The 14th World Aids Conference starts in Barcelona, Spain on 7 July. Gus Cairns talked to
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You're a respected HIV physician and researcher
but becoming co-chair of the World Aids Conference must be a new challenge?
Yes, a big one. I've invested much more time than I ever thought I would
when I agreed to take on the job! I was used to being involved in technical
and scientific conferences but the World Aids conference is a very multidisciplinary
meeting. You find yourself dealing with people with HIV, non-governmental
organisations, politicians, everybody. In one way or another I've been
involved with most of the negotiations
on policy decisions, even though my specific responsibility is only supposed
to be for the basic science and clinical 'tracks' of the conference.
What are the treatment issues you expect to feature
prominently?
After five years people are still responding positively to HIV treatments.
Most patients on treatment aren't dying and have reasonable quality of life. But we'll be hearing a lot about the simplification of regimes. Most of the therapies have to be,
and are being, simplified. Antiretrovirals will never be completely free of
