What is the International AIDS Conference?

35-year-old HIV-positive widow, Makara, prepares snooker ball for her young clients at her home. Makara says she never knows about the17th international AIDS conference in Mexico.

By Chhay Sophal

While thousands of world leaders, policymakers, AIDS activists, and People Living with HIV (PLHIV) have met during the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico on 3-8 August, Cambodian PLHIV know little about it. “I am really unaware of the conference so I do not know what they talk about. Did they find an HIV vaccine?” asked Makara, 35-year-old widow who is living with HIV.

Living in Sihanouk Ville, an international seaport and resort town in the southwest of the country, Makara often sees on reports on HIV and AIDS on television and in the newspaper, but she has not seen any reports on the AIDS conference in Mexico. “I very often watch TV but I never saw a report on the conference,” she said.

Several PLHIV and AIDS peer educators interviewed also said that they did not know about the global event. “I listen to radio but I never heard the news on the conference,” said another HIV-positive widow, 38.

Speaking in his closing session remarks at the 6-day AIDS Conference, Dr. Julio Montaner, the President of the International AIDS Society, said the conference organisers sponsored over 2500 delegates from 95 countries. He said the organisers are in a “debt to the members of the media who joined us in Mexico. They have worked tirelessly to cover all aspects of the conference. Their work represents a fundamental piece of the puzzle, as it provides effective and timely knowledge translation of our proceedings.”

However, no Cambodian journalists were invited to cover news at the conference, although several governmental and non-governmental organisations representatives attended. Mr. Pen Samtthy, the Editor-in-Chief of the country’s leading newspaper, Rasmei Kampuchea or Light of Cambodia, said he was also surprised that no journalists from Cambodia were invited. Mr. Samitthy who is also President of the Club of Cambodian Journalists, whose members number nearly two hundred journalists, said that he wished his colleagues had attended the Conference to cover the developments and the stories behind it.
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Chinda (right), a 38-year-old widow living with HIV, sells banana at her home to her neighbouring kid while being interviewed by Chhay Sophal. Chinda says she is unaware of the17th international AIDS conference in Mexico.