Dear Colleague,
Virology Education is proud to announce the 2nd International workshop on HIV Pediatrics, which will be held in Vienna, Austria from 16-17 July 2010, preceding the XVIII International AIDS Society meeting.
While progress has been made in HIV research and the availability of new drugs among HIV-infected adults, there is a large group that does not profit optimally from the progress made and that is the group of infants and children infected with HIV. Mother to child HIV transmission, particularly through breastfeeding, continues to be a problem in developing countries.
As the facts below demonstrate, staggering numbers of children are affected by HIV:
- At the end of 2007, there were 2 million children living with HIV around the
world.
- An estimated 370,000 children became newly infected with HIV in 2007.
- Of the 2 million people who died of AIDS during 2007, more than one in
seven were children.
HIV treatment in infants and children differs from HIV treatment in adults, and caregivers face numerous problems when treating these patients, particularly in developing countries. These difficulties include the need for early infant diagnosis to allow early initiation of treatment, lack of data on safety and drug dosing in children for newer drugs, continued problems with availability of pediatric drug formulations, special adherence issues for children, etc. Additionally, prevention of mother to child HIV transmission remains problematic in developing countries, both in terms of implementation of known effective interventions as well as transmission through breastfeeding. These areas of research need more attention, and therefore we have set up a highly focused international workshop on HIV Pediatrics together with a group of experts in this field.
The 2nd International Workshop on HIV Pediatrics will continue to present a unique and much needed platform for international interchange on this important topic. The workshop will be abstract-driven and, by bringing together experts from different disciplines who are involved in daily clinical care for infants and children, this meeting will offer an interactive setting where the latest developments in the field can be presented and, more importantly, discussed, reviewed and evaluated. The ultimate goal of this interchange is to cultivate better treatment methods and strategies for infants and children in developed and developing countries.
This international workshop aims to bring together virologists, pharmacologists, pediatricians, obstetricians/gynecologists and other interested researchers to present and discuss the latest developments in the field of HIV Pediatrics, Drug Development, and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission.
The program will include important topics such as:
- Rationale behind newly revised WHO pediatric antiretroviral treatment and prevention of mother to child transmission guidelines
- Prevention of mother to child transmission and program implementation Antiretroviral treatment of HIV in children, including adherence issues and managing children with treatment failure
- Co-infections in HIV-infected children, including vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization issues
- Complications of HIV infection in children, including metabolic and neurocognitive complications
- Adolescent HIV infection
- Interaction of nutrition and pediatric HIV infection and its treatment
- Psychosocial issues in pediatric HIV and families
We would like to encourage you to attend the 2nd International Workshop on HIV Pediatrics and welcome the submission of abstracts on your research and clinical cases in this field.
We hope to see you in Vienna!
On behalf of the Organizing Committee,
Dr. Carlo Giaquinto and Dr. Lynne Mofenson, CHAIRS 2010
