from? This will I hope be a very practical conference, which is why we have two new
'tracks', F and G, which concentrate on programmes, policy and implementation.
What difference will it make siting the conference for the first time
in a southern Spanish-speaking European country?
The issue of drug addiction will be prominent. The majority of HIV infection
in both southern and eastern Europe is due to sharing needles.
Inevitably, the Spanish-speaking link will mean a lot of input from Central
and South America. Other parts of the world are just as important, but
the Aids programmes implemented by the Latin American world will quite
rightly get a lot of attention.
As for Spain itself, we and Portugal have the highest HIV prevalence in
Western Europe, but I hope that there will be overdue recognition of the
reasonably good job we have done addressing it in the last 10 years. We
maybe started too late, but Spain now has one of the best Aids coverage
programmes in the world. We have 100 per cent medical coverage by our
national health system, we have imaginative prevention and support programmes,
and we have high quality scientific research conducted by a clinical group
that punches above its weight.
In Spain the conference has revitalised public interest in Aids. The Catalonian
channel TV3 does a medical research telethon every December, and we wondered
if devoting it to Aids last year would have positive or negative effects.
It was very positive. We raised 600 million pesetas (£4m) in 18
hours. This would never have happened before.
You'll be attending the 2004 conference in Bangkok. What do you hope
to be
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