The 5th Pugwash Conference on HIV/AIDS, organized under the Pugwash Conference on Science and world Affairs, will be commenced at M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation Chennai from 7th to 9th April 2006.

Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, convened for the first time by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein to bring together scientists from all over the world on threats against human existence, is trying to gather experts from African countries and Asia to exchange successful replicable strategies for the prevention management and mitigation of HIV/AIDS.

In the three-day conference, the scientists from various countries will discuss issues like Policy and state responses to HIV/AIDS and TB co-infection in Africa and India, Translating awareness into behaviour change, Ensuring access and adherence to anti-retroviral therapy with reference to experiences from Africa and India, Improving awareness and preventing infections among young people, especially in young women in both India and Africa.

The conference will check out the impact of interventions to improve nutritional and food security in the fight against HIV/AIDS and TB co-infection in Africa and Asia. The situation will analysed by the experts from World Food Programme (WPF), the organization working against the malnutrition and food security world wide. There will be sessions discussing effective strategies for preventing paediatric HIV and special experiences of the defence services in the control of HIV/AIDS also.

"The conference is intended to bring together the experts from the first wave countries where the epidemic has struck first and with great intensity, like South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, and those from second wave countries where the epidemic threatens to spiral out of control, like China and India, to exchange the strategies for prevention and management of HIV," Prof. M.S.Swaminathan, President, Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs and Chairman of M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation told in a press conference.

The importance of fighting against HIV is essential in eradication of Tuberculosis from the country, as there are chances for multiplying the current rate of disease in context of increase in HIV/AIDS, informed an expert from the Tuberculosis Research Institute. The WFP will be an active participant in the conference and a short film on 'WFP activities in India' will be released in the function, according to Elizabeth Nozensky, Programme Assistant (HIV/AIDS), World Food Programme.