Emory Symposium Focuses on AIDS Prevention ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - Anti-retroviral drugs have prolonged the lives of HIV patients. But nearly 30-years into the epidemic, there's still no cure.

Dr. James Curran heads the Center for AIDS Research at Emory University. He says prevention remains the most effective tool against the disease. Still, he says a one-method-fits-all approach is ineffective.

"The federal government or state or medical centers or other people can provide leadership, they can provide accurate scientific information, they can provide resources, but they need to have people who can work within the community itself."

Tailoring messages to at-risk groups is the focus of the symposium. Talks include emerging countries in the epidemic including China, as well as new trends in US infections.

Dr. Curran says an HIV vaccine still eludes scientists, but work continues. Jim Burress, WABE News.

(Below is more information provided by Emory University)

U.S. scientists and researchers will convene at Emory University April 17 for a daylong symposium exploring HIV prevention interventions.

The research conference, "Highly Active Prevention Interventions: The HAPI Approach to Stopping HIV," is hosted by the Emory Center for AIDS Research
(CFAR) and the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA). It will be held from 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. on the main Emory campus in the Cox Hall Ballroom located at 569 Asbury Cr.

The symposium is free and open to the public. A complimentary lunch will be provided to attendees who pre-register. To RSVP, email cfar@emory.edu.

The CFAR symposium includes presentations by nationally and internationally renowned researchers from Emory, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Brown University, Fudan University (Shanghai, China), and the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa).

Among the topics that will be discussed:
*NIH Integrated Prevention Research Agenda *The Continued Evolution of HIV Prevention Efforts in the United States *HIV in American Men Who Have Sex with Men: Multiple Microepidemics *STIs and HIV among Men Having Sex with Men in China: A Ticking Time Bomb?
*Three International Approaches to HIV Education: Rwanda and Zambia, China, and South Africa *Prevention of SHIV Transmission in Macaques by Oral or Topical Antiretroviral Prophylaxis *Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy and Behavioral Factors on HIV Transmission in HIV Discordant Couples in Lusaka and Kigali

For more information, visit www.cfar.emory.edu.

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