Russia: first Aids conference planned in May

The first regional AIDS conference bringing together countries and organisations from Eastern Europe and Central Asia is scheduled for May 15-17 in Moscow. “This will be an important and ground-breaking event especially coming just before the G8 in Moscow.? Said Mick Mathews, Civil Society Officer for the Global Fund – an international consortium of states fighting HIV/AIDS worldwide. About 1 million Russians are estimated to be HIV infected ? unless official figures indicated around 300.000 people to be HIV infected in 2005. 80 % of them are said to be younger than 30. Russia faces together with Ukraine one of the world’s fastest-growing rates of infection ? the World Bank estimates that in 2020 the number of HIV cases in Russia could range between 5 and 15 millions. The three day Eastern Europe and Central Asian AIDS conference will be divided into a number of sessions including plenaries, poster presentation, best preactice, skill building workshops and satellite events. Information and registration formular can be found at www.eecaac2006.org.