China CDC and CAPRISA hold webinar on AIDS

Themed "End Inequalities. End AIDS. End Pandemics", an international webinar on AIDS, co-organized by the Chinese Center for Disease and Prevention (China CDC) and the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), was held on November 29, 2021, to mark World AIDS Day, which falls on December 1 every year.

 

The webinar, moderated by Peter Hayward, editor-in-chief of the Lancet HIV, brought together renowned scholars in the field of AIDS research from all over the world for in-depth exchanges and discussions on AIDS prevention and control.

 

Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman, president of the International AIDS Society, emphasized the crucial role of science in her presentation "HIV: Follow the Science" while Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, spoke about the importance of taking a long-term view on ending the AIDS epidemic.

 

George F. Gao, director of the China CDC, and Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC, respectively introduced the current situation of AIDS prevention and control in China and Africa.

 

Sibongile Tshabalala, chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, talked about South Africa's AIDS prevention efforts in the face of Covid-19 at the community level. Professor Salim S. Abdool Karim, director of CAPAISA, said Covid-19 has made HIV control even more crucial and that a path forward should be mapped.

 

Han Mengjie, director of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, of the China CDC, and Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim, associate scientific director of CAPRISA, both pointed out in their concluding remarks that the safety of human life and health must always come first.

 

They said scientific research should be strengthened and all society should be mobilized, to realize the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat at an early date.