The scientific program is a key factor to federate the delegates of the Congress and encourage them to freely share their experiences. "Over the years we have built an international Steering Committee of recognized experts who actively work together to define the scientific program. Like me they do it because they take pleasure in organizing the ISHEID and helping physicians and biologists to find a meeting corresponding to their needs", says Dr. Lafeuillade. "For 10 years now the main motto of the ISHEID is "update your knowledge, share your experience" and that is what happens. Participants know that they will have lectures given by the best scientists and that there is room for discussion. We not only want people to increase their knowledge but also that the meeting impacts their everyday practice; that's why we adapt at each edition the topics covered to be in tune with a permanent evolving field.".
The ISHEID is a place to meet and exchange where participants have the opportunity to strengthen their network and create new partnerships. "As I said previously, participants have been astonished by the fact that during the ISHEID they could directly interact with the top experts of the world. For example, Professor Robert Gallo who is regularly one of the stars of the ISHEID has always been very open for discussion and several participants told me that if the ISHEID had not existed, they would never had the opportunity to met him in person. On the other side, there are regular participants coming to each ISHEID for 10 years because they know that they will meet there other colleagues and build common projects."
To bring the participants to freely share their thoughts, they try "to maintain a friendly atmosphere, even if the topics are very serious, and let enough time for discussion. The symposia which are part of the program often offer the possibility to discuss clinical cases. Nothing is black or white in Medicine, so every opinion is worth saying. We also try to include "hot topics" of the moment in the program, so that there is even more debates. For example this year we will talk about pre exposure prophylaxis in HIV infection, a topic that totally splits the scientific community in 2 parts."
The ISHEID Congress values all the therapeutic background of doctors and their trial practices experiences regardless of their country, their type of practice and their specialty. "Each participant has something to share with the others", tells us the President of the ISHEID. "Over the years we have had many participants from Asia and Africa and it was very instructing. On the other side, the ISHEID has been for them a great opportunity to get contacts with European or US teams, and to use them once back in their country."
Many challenges remain to be addressed in 2012 by the institutions and the industry in the area of the HIV, particularly in Research and Development. According to Alain Lafeuillade, three main challenges are emerging: "first, to increase access to antiretroviral therapy in poor-resource countries ; then to progress towards an HIV cure, and lastly to get a fresh start in anti-HIV vaccine research which has been a failure for nearly 30 years."
The great challenge for the 2012 edition of the ISHEID is "to get a high number of top quality abstracts and to maintain the satisfaction of the participants like it has been in the past. There are many meetings in the field and I am happy when a participant says that "it was worth it attending the ISHEID"."
Alain Lafeuillade exposes us what are the two most important focuses for this year.
The first one "is the progress done in the search of an HIV cure." This topic will be discussed during the Congress because many things happened in this area over the past two years. "First, a patient, called "the Berlin patient" has been cured from HIV for the first time. Even if he remains a unique case, it helped the scientists understanding the mechanisms involved in HIV persistence. This patient will be present at the ISHEID together with the hematologist who cured him. Then, there is a clear investment from agencies like the ANRS and the NIH, from private associations like amfAR and from the industry to the search of a cure. There is also an initiative driven by the international AIDS Society in which I am involved. And, finally, there are major fundamental advances in the field which are worth discussing.
The second important topic is the management of patients coinfected with HIV and HCV. Since a few months we have the first anti-HCV protease inhibitors on the market. There is a lot to learn and discuss about their use. In France, they are primarily commercialized for HCV monoinfected patients but there is no restriction for use in coinfected patients, even if clinical trials in this particular population are still ongoing. But we still have a lot to learn in this special population, in particular concerning drug interactions."
In times of health and economic crisis, Government and companies must define the activities in which they will continue to be involved. "Due to the economic crisis it is clear that HIV is no longer a top priority for governments", reminds Dr Lafeuillade. "Concerning pharmaceutical companies, a few of them have left the area, mainly because they did not have other anti-HIV drugs in their pipeline, but most of them maintain an active research and have a promising portfolio of new compounds to come. It is a difficult period for pharmaceutical companies because they are the scapegoats of the difficulties of our health systems, and have to face the problems of the generics. They involve a lot in drug screening, clinical research, and then have companies that are allowed to make profits with generics without investing a dime in research. Antiretroviral generic in developed countries is a new issue, and it will also be discussed during the next ISHEID."
This situation redefines the field and stresses the need to be vigilant in terms of ethics implementing a congress with this type of high quality standards. "The ISHEID is an independent meeting where neither the organizers nor the speakers are paid for the work they freely agree to do, and I want to thank them for that", expresses Alain Lafeuillade. "Of course, such a meeting would not be possible without the support of the pharmaceutical companies. But these companies do not define neither the program nor the topics. For those who organize an integrated workshop or symposium, there is a validation from the Steering Committee of the topics and speakers. It has always been easy, because our partners also want to build informative sessions and not a copy/paste of what has already been done."
Dr. Lafeuillade would like to share the following message with all next delegates: "Come to the 2012 edition, you will not be disappointed! You will find cutting-edge science which will be useful for your everyday practice."
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