The 17th International AIDS Conference held recently in Mexico City ended with a speech by Julio Montaner, the new president of the International AIDS Society. Dr. Montaner, the director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS in Vancouver, has been a world leader in research, but lately has drawn criticism for crossing the line from pure science to activism. Below is an excerpt from his controversial speech. We find ourselves at a critical juncture in the summer of 2008. Over the previous three decades, we have collectively accumulated a tremendous amount of knowledge regarding what needs to be done to effectively combat HIV at the individual and societal levels. Yet implementation flounders.

We must work diligently to overcome the ever-growing implementation gap. We must recruit, if not force, the international political leadership to achieve this goal. We must keep the pressure on the G8 leaders to follow up on their commitment to achieve universal access to prevention, care and treatment by 2010. More >>