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Nature 398, 555 (15 April 1999) | doi:10.1038/19172

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Say no to boycott of AIDS conference

Mark A. Wainberg1

  1. International AIDS Society, McGill University AIDS Centre, Jewish General Hospital, 3755 Chemin Cte-Ste-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E2, Canada

Your columns have included speculation that the International AIDS Society might countenance a boycott of the International Conference on AIDS to be held in Durban, South Africa in July 2000 (Nature  398, 8;1999). This issue has arisen because of the refusal of the South African government to routinely offer antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to HIV-infected pregnant women, in spite of the fact that short courses of ARVs towards the end of pregnancy can reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission to infants by up to 75 per cent.