Media Advisory: UCSF AIDS Blog Covers News as It Unfolds at International AIDS Meeting

On the eve of AIDS 2012, the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, UCSF has launched the blog UCSF AIDS 2012, to cover the news as it unfolds in the days leading up to and during the meeting and to offer daily expert analysis and insight along the way.

The blog, already active, will feature more than two dozen full-time faculty from UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH), who will be listening to and analyzing the latest research in their own fields of expertise.  The meeting runs July 22-27, 2012.

The contributors will include many who are the top experts in their fields — and several who have been on the frontlines of the epidemic since its beginning more than 30 years ago. They are among the hundreds of clinicians and researchers who have helped make UCSF a global leader in AIDS research and have enabled SFGH and the City of San Francisco to continue setting the standard of care for people with HIV worldwide.

The blog, already filled with reports and videos from several UCSF staff writers, will explore the latest developments in clinical care and research, the history as well as the future of the epidemic, offer perspective on the local and global problems associated with HIV, explore the role of activism in AIDS and examine the quest for a cure. The blog will also report what it will take to end the epidemic.

AIDS 2012 comes at a unique time in the history of the disease, a turning point at which scientists believe they can ponder the beginning of the end of the global scourge of HIV, which has claimed the lives of tens of millions of people worldwide. The possibility that humanity can turn the tide on the epidemic is a hope reflected in the theme of the AIDS 2012 conference, which is co-chaired by Diane Havlir, MD, chief of the UCSF Division of HIV/AIDS at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. It is also a theme explored in the official declaration of AIDS 2012.

The AIDS Research Institute (ARI) at UCSF.  UCSF ARI houses hundreds of scientists and dozens of programs throughout UCSF and affiliated labs and institutions, making ARI one of the largest AIDS research entities in the world.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.