Médecins Sans Frontières invites you...

MIND THE GAPS: AIDS TREATMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF HEALTH CARE WORKER SHORTAGES

A Médecins Sans Frontières Satellite Meeting at the XVII International AIDS Conference, Mexico City 2008

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) invites you to attend a satellite meeting on the impact of the health care worker shortage on access to HIV/AIDS treatment and lessons learned from clinicians and advocates working on the ground to overcome this gap.

August 3, 2008, 9:00am-1:00pm,

Melia Reforma Hotel,
Paseo de la Reforma
Mexico City, Mexico

Introduction: An estimated 70 percent of people who need antiretroviral treatment are still not getting it. One barrier to access to treatment is the critical shortage of health care workers. This shortage contributes to unnecessary illness and death, yet acknowledgement of the human resource crisis has not yet translated into strategies and funding to stimulate needed change.

MIND THE GAPS is a half-day satellite meeting preceding the opening ceremonies of the International AIDS Conference organized by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)‹will include reports on efforts to expand and uphold quality of AIDS treatment in the context of severe shortage of health care workers and critical discussions among experts and AIDS activists about possible policy shifts needed to confront one of the largest barriers to scale-up and quality AIDS treatment.

Speakers include:

* Dr Mphu Ramatlapeng, Honourable Minister of Health & Social Welfare,
* Lesotho
* Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World
* Rachel Cohen, Head of Mission, MSF South Africa and Lesotho
* Wim Van Damme, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
* Vuyiseka Dubula, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), South Africa
* Paul Kasonkomona, Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC)
* Dr Jennifer Kavuma, Health Workforce Advocacy Forum (HWAF), Uganda
* Dr Moses Massaquoi, MSF Malawi
* Gorik Ooms, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
* Asia Russell, Health GAP

To register, please go to:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/events/symposiums/2008/aids/