Johns Hopkins Population Center and the Population Reference Bureau's Annual Symposium on Policy and Health | Controlling HIV in Africa - Behavior, Biology, or Both?

Rates of HIV/AIDS have begun to decline in some sub-Saharan countries in Africa but remain a critical public health problem on the continent. To eliminate HIV globally, we must address its continued spread in this region. Despite recent setbacks, will vaccines or microbicides be effective weapons? And what role can other methods of prevention, whether biological (such as male circumcision) or behavioral (such as condom use and abstinence), play? Internationally recognized scholars Tom Coates and Ron Gray will present recent evidence about the effectiveness of behavioral and biological prevention strategies.

Speakers:
Dr. Thomas Coates
Michael and Sue Steinberg Endowed Professor of Global AIDS Research
Division of Infectious Diseases
David Geffen School of Medicine,
University of California at Los Angeles

Dr. Ronald Gray
William G. Robertson Jr. Professor of Reproductive Epidemiology
Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University

Discussant:
Dr. Carl W. Dieffenbach
Acting Director
Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Presider:
Dr. Maria Wawer
Professor of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University

Speaker bios:
Thomas Coates is a behavioral scientist with expertise in HIV prevention, including the relationship of biological and social/behavioral prevention strategies. He directs a community-randomized clinical trial in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Thailand to determine the impact of voluntary counseling, testing, and destigmatization efforts on the incidence of HIV community-wide. He leads a prevention clinical trial in South America as part of a 5-country effort and has initiated efforts in China to conduct studies of prevention of HIV transmission. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the currently funded NIAID HIV Prevention Trials Network. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2000.

Ronald Gray is the Robertson Professor of Reproductive Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is a co-principal investigator on the Rakai Health Sciences Program in Uganda, and principal investigator on NIH/NIAID awards for trials of male circumcision for HIV prevention which demonstrated a 60% reduction of HIV acquisition in circumcised men. This finding, confirmed by two other trials in Kenya and South Africa led WHO to recommend male circumcision for HIV prevention. Dr. Gray has conducted numerous studies of HIV prevention and care.

PLEASE RSVP to mmeisnere@prb.org if you plan to attend.

Contact Information:

Marc Meisnere
202 939 5486
mmeisnere@prb.org