Dr. Rachel Levine, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health, is among speakers at this week’s U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Rachel Levine, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health who became the nation’s highest-ranking transgender public official earlier this year, are among dozens of experts scheduled to participate in the 25th Annual U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS scheduled to take place virtually Dec. 2-3.
Fauci and Levine are scheduled to join Harold Phillips, director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, as speakers at the conference’s opening plenary session at noon on Dec. 2.
Phillips and Levine are expected to provide information about President Joe Biden’s plans for updating the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which Biden is scheduled to announce on Dec. 1 at a White House World AIDS Day event.
Members of the U.S. People Living With HIV Caucus are also expected to discuss the federal policy agenda on HIV/AIDS at the opening plenary session.
In addition to the opening plenary and three other plenary sessions, one more on Dec. 2 and two on Dec. 3, the conference is scheduled to include 140 workshop sessions on a wide variety of HIV/AIDS related topics.
The annual United States Conference on HIV/AIDS is organized by the D.C.-based national HIV/AIDS advocacy organization NMAC, which was formerly known as the National Minority AIDS Council before it changed its name to that of its widely known initials NMAC.
“NMAC leads with race to urgently fight for health equity and racial justice to end the HIV epidemic in America,” the organization states on its website. “Health equity with communities of color is everyone’s challenge.”
Several of the workshop sessions cover the topic of expanding the local, state and national efforts of using pre-exposure prophylaxis drugs, known as PrEP, as a means of preventing HIV infection.
Other workshop sessions include: HIV CURE – Hot Topics in HIV Cure Research; A Town Hall on Aging and HIV; COVID, HIV, and Racism – How Providers Can Make a Difference; Expanding the Pleasure and HIV Prevention Toolkit: Kink As Harm Reduction; It’s About Time – HIV Research Just For Transgender Women; and Impact of COVID-19 on HIV Prevention Services Among U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-Funded Community Based Organizations.
The conference’s fourth and closing plenary session, Foundation Stones to Building the EHE Effort in Indian County, “will highlight the work of those addressing HIV and COVID in Indian Country, rural states and among Alaska Natives with limited infrastructure,” according to a conference agenda statement.
“This plenary addresses these challenges and provides innovative solutions by the Indian Country – making the case to support Native HIV care by providing essential building blocks,” the agenda statement continued.
Paul Kawata, NMAC’s executive director, said in a statement in the conference’s agenda booklet that he and his NMAC team are disappointed that the 2021 conference is being held virtually for the second year in a row.
“But we felt the issue of safety was simply too critical to ignore,” Kawata said in his statement. “I’ve been very concerned about our loved ones over 50 living with HIV through the whole COVID pandemic,” he said, noting that people in that category were dealing with isolation as well as a higher risk for COVID.
“I hope this conference, even though it is virtual, will help alleviate some of that isolation,” Kawata continued. “We’ve worked very hard to make this conference not just an opportunity for training and education, but a chance to connect with others, reinforce those strands in your support net, and hopefully, establish some new connections.”
More information about the U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS and instructions on registering to attend can be obtained at NMAC.org. and USCHA.life.
