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Scientic Meeting on the empirical evidence for the demographic and socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS - Report
Health Economics and Research Division (HEARD).
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?‘A lot of projections, but little data?’, is a common complaint amongst HIV/AIDS researchers and policy makers in Africa. One response was the ?‘Scientific Meeting on Empirical Evidence for the Demographic and Socio-Economic Impacts of HIV/AIDS?’.
This meeting was the culmination of an initiative begun two years ago, which recognised that interventions must be based on sound information about the medium and long-term demographic, social and economic consequences of HIV/AIDS. This initiative involved the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, the University of North Carolina (UNC) and HEARD.
The outcome was the 3-day conference where scientists could present and hear papers based on rigorous empirical research. Forty four presentations were scheduled around nine thematic sessions (Adult Mortality, studies with HIV serology; Adult Mortality, evidence from national statistics; Family Welfare; Family and household structure; Empirical Evidence for Impact in the Public Sector; Empirical evidence of impacts in the private sector; Child mortality; Fertility effects of HIV; Testing the accuracy of projections). Each session included a period for a discussant to review the presentations and there was a period for an overview of the day?’s debates.
The programme began with a keynote address by Professor Roy Anderson of the Imperial College, London. This was followed by plenary sessions for demographic research on Adult Mortality, on the grounds that this is the fundamental impact of the AIDS epidemic and why HIV is such a threat to society. Plenary sessions for demographic and socio-economic research on Family and Household Welfare followed on the second day of the meeting. The rationale here was that the effects of HIV/AIDS are felt initially and harshly amongst the general population. Parallel sessions were scheduled on the morning of the third day to address the extended impacts of HIV/AIDS. A final plenary session in the afternoon was held for critiques of HIV/AIDS models and projections, on the grounds that previous presentations would inform debate about this field of HIV/AIDS research, and allow the meeting to come to some conclusions about the veracity of projections in the light of empirical research.
In the event, 3 invited speakers could not participate as a result of the global repercussions of the Iraq War and the ?‘SARS?’ outbreak. There were more individuals who wanted to attend than could be accommodated at the venue. Approximately 80 interested scientists, government professional staff and journalists came to hear the presentations.
The full report can be downloaded on the righthand side of this page |
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