Montaner named president of international AIDS organization

published on February 22, 2006

(Vancouver) – Dr. Julio Montaner, Director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, has been appointed president-elect of the world's leading independent association of HIV/AIDS professionals.

Montaner will begin his term as president-elect of the International AIDS Society (IAS) at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Aug. 13-18. He will assume the presidency at the closing of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, in 2008.

Montaner says his election is the direct result of the Centre’s growing reputation as a world leader in HIV/AIDS clinical care and research.

“Our ongoing published research continues to push forward understanding of the complexities of the disease – from improving treatment regimens and outcomes to highlighting strategies that may prevent transmission of the virus,” says Montaner. “This appointment is really a recognition of the Centre’s multi-disciplinary team that is collectively responsible for this important and internationally relevant work.”

As president of IAS, Montaner will actively promote the role of the Society as an outstanding worldwide force of committed professionals working together to prevent, control and treat HIV/AIDS. He will focus his efforts on the global expansion of antiretroviral-therapy programs to limit the epidemic’s growth.

“We now have very powerful cocktails that are very simple and well tolerated. These regimens not only save lives, but can help decrease transmission-rates of HIV as part of an overall strategy focused on safer-sex practices and other important harm-reduction measures,” says Montaner.

Montaner leads clinical activities at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Canada’s largest HIV/AIDS research, treatment and education facility. As well, Montaner is Co-Director of the Canadian HIV Trials Network and Director of the AIDS Research Program and the Immunodeficiency Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital, holding the Endowed Chair in AIDS Research at UBC, the first initiative of its kind in Canada.

IAS is the world’s leading independent association of HIV/AIDS professionals, with more than 6,000 individual members from over 130 countries. Toronto is the second Canadian city to host the society’s bi-annual conference since Vancouver in 1996. Montaner was part of a small committee of local HIV/AIDS specialists that successfully lobbied for, and organized, the first global HIV/AIDS conference in the country.

For more information about IAS, visit www.iasociety.org.

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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Montaner named president of international AIDS organization

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