Conference reports

9th European AIDS Conference

25-29 October 2003, Warsaw

IAPAC Monthly – Vol. 10, No. 1, January 2004
Mark Mascolini

How will 2003 be remembered, antiretrovirally speaking? Set aside, for the moment, the most obvious answer to that question: 2003 was the year when AIDS activism won its biggest prize-serious work toward making antiretrovirals as easy to get in Gaborone as in Hollywood, in Port-au-Prince as in Portland. Bill Clinton’s AIDS foundation brokered a deal with four top generic drug makers to trim price tags even more for national antiretroviral rollouts in 12 Caribbean and four African countries. Attendees at Warsaw’s 9th European AIDS Conference (9th EAC) heard of early antiretroviral success at a bucolic outpost in Botswana, whose government earned high marks for its commitment to nationwide treatment. Even foot-dragging South Africa took a big step in the right direction, promising a comprehensive treatment program of its own.