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The 14th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) has been slated for Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, between Dec. 4-9, an ICASA official said Friday.
The 14th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) has been slated for Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, between Dec. 4-9, an ICASA official said Friday.
Speaking at a news briefing in the capital Abuja, ICASA President Femi Soyinka said the conference whose theme would be " HIV/AIDS and Family" would attract about 12,500 delegates to attend, including Babatunde Osotunmehin, chief executive officer of the National Association for Campus Activities, E.A Abebe, director of Public Health of Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health, and Pierre Mpele, country director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Nigeria.
Describing the ICASA as "an African conference for Africa by Africans and the largest conference on AIDS on the continent," he said the ICASA would want to make a real impact and start reversing the epidemic on the continent.
Soyinka said the body would also offer an opportunity to find new ways of strengthening family values like love, security, protection and support for the next generation.
"With the record numbers of orphans, widows and grandparents looking after their infant grandchildren, the family bears the brunt of the HIV epidemic economically, socially and culturally," he said.
According to Osotunmehin, the Abuja Declaration adopted at the 24-27 April 2001 summit on the fight against the pandemic "is a benchmark of what should be done regarding that campaign," which, he noted, had been complimented with the inauguration of the global fund.
Source: Xinhua