Dear participants of the 6th Regional Conference on HIV and AIDS,
Another conference is behind us. I would like to use this occasion to first express my apologies for not being able to participate in the proceedings, but higher purpose works in mysterious ways...
I extend my gratitude to everybody who contributed to organization of this incredible event – Dr. Nešad Šeremet, first and foremost, without whom none of this would have been possible; dr. Zlatko Čardaklija, whose advice and timely opinions made everything easier; the kind ladies and gentlemen from Insitutes for Public Health of Federation BiH and Republic of Srpska, dr. Zlatko Vučina, dr. Jelena Ravlija, dr. Slobodan Stanić i dr. Stela Stoisavljević, to whom we owe more than just gratitude; to UNAIDS and GSK, who made their much appreciated financial contribution to this event; to our dearest Prof. dr. Josip Begovac, whose academic and professional clout gave this Conference something of a world-class importance; and of course to all his colleagues from the field, too numerous to be mentioned here: Prof. dr. Nicola Petrosillo, dr. Jovan Ranin, Prim. dr. Mila Paunić, Prof.dr. Tomislav Rukavina, dr. Vesna Hadžiosmanović and many, many others...
The list should go on to include all the personnel from many different agencies who took extra care of things nobody normally notices but we all do when something goes wrong – technicians, photographers, journalists, media coverage people, interpreters, musicians, the wonderful staff of the Hotel Hollywood – thank you all.
And finally, I cannot fail to mention all the members of Partnerships in Health who put in extra hours to organize this Conference: Ale Hamzić i Džana Baždarević - if this Conference was an internal combustion engine, then these two would be a crankshaft; my right hand Damir Laličić, the man who knows everyone and whom everyone knows; our Project Manager Amer Paripović, the man with a plan; Haris Karabegović, who somehow managed to do half the work and pull off that dreadful task of standing in front of the cameras for two full days while never making a mistake; the tech guru, one and only Elmir Krdžević; the financial experts behind the scenes, Snježana Hondo and Ivana Marković; our own doctor-in-the-office Suzana Hadžialjević; and finally our great, great support staff, Ena, Gorjana, Adi, two Edins, Damjan, and Azur, who in reality did most of the hard work during this Conference.
To make the long story short, I am thankful from the bottom of my heart to all of you who contributed in any fashion to the 6th Regional Conference, as well as everybody else who I just failed to specifically mention. My heart goes out to all of you; I hope we will all get together again at the next, bigger and better, 7th Regional Conference on HIV and AIDS in Sarajevo.
Yours truly,
Aida Kurtović
Director
Partnerships in Health
Narrative Report
The Sixth Regional Conference on HIV and AIDS entitled “Treatment of Co-Infections and Innovative Approaches to Prevention of HIV” was held on May 17-18 2012 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organizer of the conference was Partnerships in Health together with its partners, the Public Health Institute of FBiH and Public Health Institute of RS. The main financial sponsor of the event was the Global Fund, while UNAIDS and the GlaxoSmithKline provided additional financial support.
The preliminary report and evaluation of Sixth Regional Conference on HIV and AIDS can be found here
The 6th Regional Conference on HIV & AIDS was held on May 17 – 18, 2012 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Conference was organized by Partnerships in Health/Partnerstvo za zdravlje, in collaboration with partners and beneficiaries. It enabled partners from the Western-Balkans region working on the prevention, treatment, care and support to the PLHIV to meet and share knowledge, experience and ideas. For the professionals working in domain of the fight against the HIV & AIDS, the Conference was an opportunity to strengthen an existing and establish new partnerships; to meet health and non-health partners, government and civil society in order to forge more effective response and to get introduced with new strategies and innovations in prevention of the HIV.
Like previously held regional conferences, the 6th Regional Conference was dedicated to the specific topic. „Treatment of co-infections and innovative approaches to prevention of the HIV“ was a thematic area covered by the upcoming conference. The specific Conference theme was not a limitation to presentation and analysis of the other related themes on the HIV and AIDS.
- To introduce new technologies and strategies in prevention of HIV
- To introduce opportunities for treatment of co-infections in countries of the region
- To review HIV epidemics in the Western-Balkans region
- To provide a forum for exchange of knowledge, practices and experiences
The 6th Regional Conference was organized in collaboration with the following partners and/or sponsors:
- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
- Institute for Public Health FBiH
- Institute for Public Health RS
- UNAIDS
- GlaxoSmithKline
For more information about available sponsorships, contact Partnerships in Health staff.
- Service providers and practitioners
- Researchers
- Individual service users, representatives of marginalized and vulnerable groups
- Government representatives and local and international politicians
- Representatives of related public health organizations and professionals working in the related field
- Representatives of international public health organizations
- Non-governmental organizations
- Clinicians dealing with infective diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, hematologists etc.
Participants are encouraged to register early as the registration fee depends on it. Please use the registration form and fill it out completely. You can also request the Info Package (registration form, abstract form, and Letter of Invitation) on the Home section of the Conference Webpage and one will be sent to you by email.
Registration fees are as follows:
- Until March 31, 2012: 150 EUR
- From March 31, 2012 thereon after: 200 EUR
The registration fees cover conference folder, one gala dinner, two lunches and coffee, beverages and snacks for coffee breaks. The fee does not include accommodation, travel expenses or any other incidental expenses you might incure during the Conference.
The Partnership in Health has negotiated the special discount rates for the participants of the Sixth Regional Conference at the Hotel Hollywood. Now you can book up your accommodation at the time of registration. The package includes all costs covered by registration, single-room occupancy accommodation, breakfasts and dinners, and transport from/to the airport at a special discount rate of 250 EUR prior to March 31, 2012 and 300 EUR thereon after. Should you decide to choose this package, please indicate so on the registration form.
Mr. Sci. Željko Komšić, Presidency Chair, Presidency BiH
Prof.dr.sc. Josip Begovac, Head, Reference Center for HIV/AIDS, University Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Zagreb, Croatia
Prof.dr. Đorđe Jevtović, Head, HIV/AIDS Center,Department of Infective Diseases, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Mr. Sci. Rusmir Mesihović,Head Ministry of Health FBiH
Prof. dr. Ranko Škrbić, Head, Ministry of Health RS
Dr. Boban Mugoša, Director, Institute for Public Health, Podgorica, Montenegro
Dr.mr.sci. Mila Paunić, Epidemiologist, Institute for Student Health of Belgrade University, Serbia
Dr. Stela Stoisavljević, Head, National Office for HIV/AIDS, Republic of Srpska
Mr. Pavle Kaunitz, Chair, Inter-religious Council BiH
Dr. Danijela Simić, Head, National Office for HIV/AIDS, Belgrade, Serbia
Ms. Marina Davidashvili, Senior Policy Officer, European Parliamentary Forum, Bruxelles, Belgium
Ms. Aleksandra Blagojević, Program Officer, Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva, Switzerland
MsC. Dejana Ranković, Steering Board Member, AIDS Action Europe, Belgrade, Serbia