In July 2012, the world's largest AIDS conference comes to Washington, DC is the first time that the meeting will be held in the United States since 1990 and preparations are already underway.
Despite the massive U.S. financial, medical and scientific contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS, a major issue blocked the conference from being held here. That was a law that prohibited HIV infected people from traveling to the United States. In was passed in 1987 in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Efforts to lift the ban began during President George W. Bush’s second administration.
The theme of AIDS 2012 is yet to be determined
"We have not worked on the subject. Normally, the issue is about the time of the conference. The reason is that the conference is now a year and a half to go. If you have an issue now, things may change time. And the issue, once you've decided, can not be changed. It becomes irrelevant, "he says, adding:" So let's start discussing the issue in a middle of this year. And to the end of this year, then we will have a theme of the conference. "
AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV destroys a type of defense cell in the body called a CD4 helper lymphocyte (pronounced: lim-fuh-site). These lymphocytes are part of the body's immune system, the defense system that fights infectious diseases. But as HIV destroys these lymphocytes, people with the virus begin to get serious infections that they normally wouldn't — that is, they become immune deficient. The name for this condition is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
People who have another STD such as syphilis, genital herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea or bacterial vaginosis are at greater risk of contracting HIV during sex with infected partners.
If a woman with HIV is pregnant, her newborn baby can catch the virus before birth, during birth or breastfeeding. If doctors know a pregnant woman has HIV, you can usually prevent the spread of the virus from mother to child. All pregnant teenagers and women should be tested for HIV so they can begin treatment if necessary.
