DUSHANBE, July 15, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Leaders of Tajikistan’s Network of Women Living with HIV and the NGO “Center for Mental Health and HIV/AIDS – MHAIDS” will attend the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011) that will take place in Rome, Italy from July 16 to July 20, the MHAIDS director Manizha Hoitova said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

“The conference will give researcher and specialists an unique opportunity to know about the latest developments in researches on HIV and determine practical methods of implementation of the latest scientific achievements,” Ms. Hoitova stressed.

The 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011) is the world’s largest open scientific conference on HIV/AIDS that will bring together more than 5,000 delegates from all over the world.   

At the biennial gathering, dedicated to the exploration and implementation of HIV science, leaders will examine the latest developments in HIV-related research, and explore how scientific advances can – in very practical ways – inform the global response to HIV/AIDS.

Topics this year will include new treatments and treatment possibilities for HIV; research and management of side effects and complications of HIV and antiretroviral therapy, and progress toward a cure.

IAS 2011 is organized by the International AIDS Society, in partnership with Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health), the leading technical and scientific body of the Italian National Health Service.

IAS 2009 was held in Cape Town, South Africa, from July 19 -22., and was aimed at providing new insights into HIV disease development, biomedical prevention and clinical care that can lead to novel research directions and help translate theoretical advances into clinical and prevention practice.

Tajikistan’s Network of Women Living with HIV is a network of HIV-positive women and their allies working to improve the quality of women’s lives by supporting HIV-positive women.

The organization was set up October 2010 as an initiative group.  The network now provides services to more than 100 HIV positive women across the country.  To-date, 50 women living with HIV in Tajikistan have been registered Tajikistan’s Network of Women Living with HIV.

According to the statistical data from the Ministry of Health, 538 new HIV infection cases have been registered in Tajikistan over the first six months of this year, bringing the total number of officially registered HIV sufferers in the country 3,395.