OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE – DAY 2 MONDAY 21 JULY 2014

July 21, Melbourne, Australia – AIDS 2014, the 20th International AIDS Conference, officially began last night (Sunday 20 July) in Melbourne, Australia, with moving tributes to the six delegates who lost their lives aboard flight MH17.

Representatives of the organisations that lost colleagues – the World Health Organisation, AIDS Fonds, Stop AIDS Now, The Female Health Company, and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development – joined eleven former, present and future presidents of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and members of the Dutch HIV community on the main stage in front of more than 5,000 delegates from around the world for a moment of remembrance.

"I strongly believe that all of us being here for the next week to discuss, to debate and to learn is indeed what our colleagues who are no longer with us would have wanted," Prof. Françoise Barré - Sinoussi, International Conference Chair of AIDS 20 14 and President of the International AIDS Society told the gathering. "We will remember their legacy and forever keep them in our hearts."

Prof. Barré - Sinoussi went on to say: "The tremendous scale up of HIV programmes has begun to reverse the spread of HIV. According to the new UNAIDS report released a few days ago, nearly 14 million people living with HIV in low and middle - income countries are now being treated. Millions of lives are saved. But this is far from being enough and we still have plenty to do. Let's show the world that neither brutality nor hatred can stop us. Let's join our forces to build a better future for all."

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