The 5th International AIDS INDIA Conference, organized by Department of Experimental Medicine and AIDS Research Centre of Tamil Nadu Dr.MGR Medical University, will be held in Chennai on October 20-24.

With the theme ‘transfer of knowledge’, the meet would discuss issues like ART drug availability and care, basic, clinical and social science aspect of HIV/AIDS care, policy, accountability and clinical issues, besides expert sessions and interactive sessions.

According to Dr. C V Bhirmanandham, president of the conference, the meet aims to provide updates on HIV epidemiology, transmission and advances in prevention, antiretroviral therapy with reference to resource constrained settings, integrate social sciences in to VCTC, PMTCT, ART, vaccines and microbicides, empowering PLWHA to work with experimental drugs, vaccines and microbicides, understanding the basics as to how to transfer knowledge from resourceful experts to those with limited resources, from care providers to infected with HIV, from literates to illiterate, from urban to rural communities etc.

About 3500 to 5000 delegates, including general public, experts on the subject, PLWHAs, NGOs etc. are expected to participate in the bi-annual conference organised by the Dr M.G.R.Medical University since 1977, according to Dr. Bhirmanandham.