RTI International - News Release - 7.12.2010

RTI International Experts' Research Featured at 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.—RTI International experts will present their research and findings concerning HIV/AIDS preventions and interventions at the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna (July 18–23).

The International AIDS Conference is the premier gathering of researchers and scientists working in the field of HIV, as well as policy makers, persons living with HIV and other individuals committed to ending the pandemic.

RTI leading experts will present 22 papers and poster sessions to thousands of attendees from around the world, during the six-day event. Many of those presentations will highlight culturally appropriate, gender-specific interventions that address HIV risk among vulnerable women in diverse settings and are guided by prevailing regional and local conditions.

In the United States, HIV/AIDS affects African-Americans disproportionately. Despite representing less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, African-Americans constituted 51 percent of the new HIV/AIDS cases in 2007. African-American women account for an increasing proportion of these cases and they are almost 23 times as likely to be diagnosed with AIDS as White women.

In other parts of the world, women are rapidly becoming the face of the pandemic. Women in sub-Saharan Africa are among the most affected by HIV/AIDS, representing 61 percent of infections among adults in the region. It is estimated that 75 percent of all women living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa.

A satellite session chaired by RTI researcher Wendee Wechsberg, Ph.D.—Gender Inequities and HIV Among Women Who Inject Drugs: Next-Generation Responses for Research, Programs, and Policy, Wednesday, July 21, 7 a.m.—will address ways to begin reversing those trends.

Other RTI-affiliated events at the conference will include:

• Thinking Politically About HIV: What Are the Insights of the Political Sciences?  IAS-UNAIDS Political Science Workshop, Sunday, July 18, 10 a.m. David Stephens, Ph.D., senior HIV specialist at RTI Asia HIV Program, is on the Advisory Committee for this one-day workshop.
• Be Heard! MSM Pre-Conference to the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Saturday, July 17, 8 a.m. Organized by The Global Forum on MSM & HIV, Vienna University of Economics and Business. RTI's Asia HIV Program is co-sponsoring this event.

To view a list of RTI researcher presentations at the conference, visit www.rti.org/aids2010.