Program Supplement [International Conference on AIDS (14th: 2002: Barcelona, Spain)]

Plenary Speakers: Biographies

Irene Fernandez
Irene Fernandez is a prominent Malaysian
human rights activist, director and cofounder of Tenaganita, a non-governmental
organization campaigning for the rights of
women and migrant workers. She is married
with three teenage children. She has been on
trial since 1996 for "maliciously publishing false news" in a
report about conditions in immigration detention camps in
Malaysia. Although currently free on bail, she faces a prison
sentence of up to three years. If she is convicted and
imprisoned, Amnesty International would consider her to be a
prisoner of conscience. The organization believes she is being
prosecuted solely on account of her peaceful activities as a
human rights activist.
Bernhard Schwartlnder
Bernhard Schwartlinder, MD, PhD, is Director
of Evidence and Policy, HIV/AIDS, at the
World Health Organization, Geneva, where he
is responsible for guiding and supervising
WHO's work in HIV/AIDS prevention, care
and support, strategic information, research,
and monitoring and evaluation.
Between 1996 and 2oo001, Dr Schwartlander was Senior
Epidemiologist and Director of Strategic Information at the
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), where
his team was responsible for the monitoring and surveillance
of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, publishing widely on its
dynamics, determinants, demographics and economic impacts,
including the agency's Reports on the Global AIDS Epidemic. In
2000 he undertook a special assignment to the World Bank to
develop strategic databases and economic analyses on the
cost and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the responses
to it.
Prior to joining the UN, Dr Schwartlander was centrally
involved in the planning, implementation and evaluation of
federal HIV/AIDS monitoring systems and infectious
diseases prevention programs in Germany, most recently as
Director of the Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology,
and the AIDS-Centre at the Robert Koch-Institut in Berlin, the
central biomedical and infectious disease research and
reference laboratory of the Federal Ministry of
Health, Germany.

Robert F. Siliciano d t h e
Dr Robert F. Siliciano is a member of the ltn
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a
Professor of Medicine and Molecular Biology
and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine. In 1995, his laboratory
provided the first demonstration that latently
infected memory CD4+ T-cells were present in patients with
HIV-1 infection. He went on to characterize this latent reservoir
and to show that latently infected cells persist even in patients
on prolonged antiretroviral therapy. These studies have raised
the possibility that eradication of HIV-1 infection with
antiretroviral therapy alone may never be possible. This work
has led to a rethinking of current treatment strategies.
Dr. Siliciano received his MD and PhD degrees from Johns
Hopkins, did postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, and
then joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins. He is the recipient of
a Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award from the Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation. He is a past Chairman of the National
Institutes of Health AIDS and Related Research Study Section.
He currently directs the MD-PhD Program at Johns Hopkins.
Milly Katana
Lobbying and Advocacy Officer of the Health
Rights Action Group in Uganda, Milly Katana
is a graduate of Commerce from Makerere
University Kampala. Since 1995, when she
was diagnosed with HIV, she has worked with
many civil society organizations locally, at a
regional level and globally.
She has worked as a Project Manager for the Network of
People Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda, responsible for
resource mobilization, designing training programs for people
living with HIV, implementation of activities and public
campaigns for prevention in institutions including schools, the
police, the army and prisons.
As part of her global responsibilities, Milly was recommended
by the Network of African People Living with HIV to the board
of the Global Network of People Living with H IV. Here, she
brought tremendous experience of hands-on passion from the
hardest hit region.
Today, Milly is engaged in the international campaign for
access to care and treatment in the wake of an intensifying
epidemic which badly needed a change of focus from
prevention alone, to addressing the care needs for those
affected and infected by HIV/AIDS, and also stigma and
discrimination, underlying drivers of the epidemic. Milly has
also joined the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria as a Southern NGO Board Member
representing Civil Societies from Developing Countries. As a
board member, she has a collective responsibility with other
members to address the global health crisis through mobilizing
additional resources to finance work on the three diseases.
Above all, she is responsible for supporting the participation of
Civil Societies at all levels in the developing world to
participate in the work of the Global Fund.

XIV International AIDS Conference BARCELONA - JULY 7-12