Final Program and Oral Abstracts [International Conference on AIDS (8th: 1992: Amsterdam, Netherlands)]

4) PEDIATRIC HIV/AIDS
With the burgeoning rate of HIV infection among children worldwide, interest in the
complexity and challenges presented by pediatric HIV/AIDS has come of age. This
minicourse will assess the most current information about HIV/AIDS in infants and
children from epidemiological, diagnostic, and case management standpoints.
The first session will present the most recent information about seroprevalance of HIV
infection in women of child-bearing age and transmission rates from mothers to children.
Projected infection rates among infants and women will also be discussed.
The second session will focus on the diagnosis of infection in mothers and infants. Topics
to be covered include: WHO clinical definition, availability and standardization of antibody
testing, state-of-the-art virus cultures, PCR determination and specific HIV IgA assessment.
The third session will cover the management and care of infected children from nutrition
and intravenous immunoglobulin to PCP prophylaxis and retroviral therapy. Existing
clinical trials and vaccine possibilities will also be discussed.
5) APPLYING NEW DIAGNOSTIC METHODS TO EPIDEMIOLOGY
In a global pandemic such as HIV/AIDS, epidemiological studies provide critical guidance
for local, national, and global decision-making. These studies in turn are dependent upon
accurate and economically feasible diagnostic methods. This minicourse will address
this issue by attempting to answer the question: How can new techniques for diagnosis
of HIV infection best be applied in epidemiological studies?
Each of the three sessions will address a major topic in this area. The first session
will discuss the latest advances in antibody testing, and how they might be employed
for diagnosis in developing countries. The second will cover the diagnosis of HIV infection
in newborns and children, and the use of prognostic markers in therapeutic trials. The
final session will deal with techniques for quantification of HIV infection in therapeutic
trials, paying special attention to plasma and cellular viremia as well as PCR techniques.
6) EPIDEMIOLOGICAL METHODS OF SURVEILLANCE AND PREDICTION
This minicourse will focus on the ways in which epidemiological studies can provide
the optimum tools for planning strategies against HIV/AIDS. The course will examine
the most effective epidemiological methods for predicting the future course of the HIV/
AIDS epidemic and, through the use of case studies, will demonstrate the integration
of surveillance methods with applied statistics. Specific topics to be covered include:
- estimating the AIDS incidence curve;
- estimating HIV prevalence and projecting AIDS incidence;
- HIV serosurveillance;
- estimating survival from surveillance data;
- reliability of AIDS reporting systems; and
- interpreting surveillance results and improving their utility.
7) APPROACHES TO SELECTING AND EVALUATING INTERVENTIONS TO PREVENT HIV
INFECTION
This minicourse is intended for persons who are involved in policy, planning, implementation and/or evaluation of intervention strategies, whether in governmental or nongovernmental agencies. Emphasizing work in developing countries, the course will
describe the elements to be considered in all phases of creating and analyzing HIV
intervention programs. To do so, the course will provide:
- an overview of interventions in use and their effectiveness;
- an analysis of criteria for selecting and prioritizing interventions, target audiences,
and approaches;
- a framework for planning or adjusting a programmatic response to specific situations;
- case studies of successful programs; and
- an assessment of research and evaluation in program development.

35