PLENARY SPEAKERS

OPENING LECTURE: Africa: what have we learnt?

Professor David Mabey is Professor of Communicable Diseases at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. He became interested in STIs when working as a clinician in The Gambia in the 1980s, and has published more than 250 papers on STIs and trachoma in developing countries. He is director of a WHO Collaborating Centre for the Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections at the London School.

CLOSING LECTURE: Emerging Multi-component STI/HIV Prevention.

Dr. King Holmes is the first William H. Foege Chair of Global Health at the University of Washington, directs the UW Center for AIDS and STD, a WHO Collaborating Center, and serves as principal investigator for the International Training & Education Center on HIV (ITECH). He has authored 510 peer-reviewed publications, edited 29 books, monographs, and journal supplements, and trained and/or mentored over 100 scientists involved in STD/HIV research and care

PLENARY LECTURE 1: STI new diagnostics and rapid tests.

Professor Ron Ballard is Head of the Laboratory Reference and Research Branch within the Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The Branch contains two WHO Reference Laboratories, namely the Syphilis Serology, and STD Diagnostics Initiative Reference Laboratories. Previously, he was Head of the Reference Centre for STDs at the South African Institute for Medical Research was the founder, and past president, of the STD Society of Southern Africa. His main research interests include development and application of new diagnostic and typing tests for STDs, tropical STDs and conventional STD/HIV interactions

PLENARY LECTURE 2: Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV.

Professor James McIntyre is an Executive Director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, based at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, in Soweto, one of Africas largest AIDS research centres working in HIV prevention, vaccines, treatment and care, and HIV vaccines. Prof. McIntyre is an international authority on mother-to-child transmission of HIV and HIV in women and has published widely in this field.

PLENARY LECTURE 3: Biological factors driving HIV transmission.

Dr. Philippe Mayaud is a Reader in Infectious Diseases and Reproductive Health at the Clinical Research Unit of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is a physician and clinical epidemiologist whose research has included clinical, epidemiological, operational and intervention studies of the interactions between HIV and other STIs. Currently, his research focuses on viral STIs such genital herpes and human papillomavirus in developing countries. Philippe has worked in the Caribbean, Brazil, and various parts of Africa, including 6 years in Mwanza, Tanzania. He is also Director of a Research Programme Consortium on Reproductive Health & HIV funded by the Department of International Development, UK with partners in Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa and Pakistan (http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/dfid/aids/).

PLENARY LECTURE 4: Getting connected: the role of the internet and sexual networks.

Dr. Sevgi Aral is Associate Director for Science in the Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She currently serves as a clinical professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine; and has adjunct professorial appointments at Emory University and University of Manitoba. Dr. Aral has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals. In addition to her work at the CDC, Dr. Aral has served in a variety of capacities for other public health institutions, including the World Health Organization. Dr. Aral has over 200 publications. Her work has focused on risk and preventive behaviors, gender differences, societal characteristics that influence STD and HIV rates, contextual issues and effects of distinct types of sexual mixing on STD spread.

PLENARY LECTURE 5: Male circumcision: pink elephant or public health reality?

Professor Bertran Auvert is a Professor of Public Health at the medical school of the University of Versailles, France. He lectures on epidemiology, biostatistics and information science. Prof. Auvert was the principal investigator for the first randomized control trial, in South Africa, to assess the impact of male circumcision on the transmission of HIV. He is currently working on designing and evaluating the roll-out of male circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa.

PLENARY LECTURE 6: HIV vaccines: past, present and future.

Dr Pontiano Kaleebu is Assistant Director, Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and Head of the Basic Sciences Programme of the Medical Research Council/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS. He also leads the UVRI/IAVI HIV Vaccine Program in Uganda. He is the Chairman of the African AIDS Vaccine Programme (AAVP) steering committee, a former member of the WHO-UNAIDS AIDS Vaccine Advisory Committee, a former board member of SAAVI; currently a member of the Scientific Committee of The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. He chairs the Uganda HIV drug resistance working group. He has published widely, with main interest in HIV vaccine research, HIV diversity and resistance to anti-retroviral drugs.

PLENARY LECTURE 7: Evolving STI Clinic Practice

Dr. Cornelis “Kees” Rietmeijer is the Director of Epidemiology, Surveillance & Research of the STD/HIV Prevention Program at Denver Public Health. He received is MD (1977) and PhD (2004) degrees from the University of Amsterdam and his MSPH degree (1991) from the University of Colorado. He is the Medical Director of the Denver STD/HIV Prevention Training Center and a Professor in the Department of Community and Behavioural Health at the Colorado School of Public Health. He is the principal investigator on a number of STD/HIV-related research projects and heads the Internet and STD Center of Excellence. Dr. Rietmeijer’s research interests include STI clinical operations, the use of the Internet and other new media for STI/HIV prevention, and behavioural interventions for STI/HIV prevention.

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