THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ORAL HEALTH AND DISEASE IN AIDS, BEIJING, CHI -
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests funding to facilitate the attendance and active participation of young and junior scientists from developing countries at The 6th World Workshop on Oral Health and Disease in AIDS to be held in Beijing, China April 21-25, 2009. This is the second time the Workshop will be held in Asia. It is particularly appropriate at this time with Southeast Asia being in a growing center of the AIDS pandemic. We are applying for funds to support a number of individual travel grants to partially cover registration, which includes accommodation and meals ($1000), and partial travel expenses for coach round-trip plus local transportation (up to $1000) for each of the young or junior scientists selected. Because of the extreme limitation on funds for such scientists from developing countries to attend meetings of this caliber, the request is intended in large part to support foreign participants. The International Workshops have proved to be invaluable in that they enable clinicians and scientists working in the field to exchange ideas and information at personal level. SE Asian communities will benefit enormously from the latest information on diagnosis and treatment brought fresh to our researchers, university lecturers, clinicians and students. The workshop will make it possible to consider specific Asian problems, to discuss the steps being taken to address these problems and to offer alternative approaches. The findings will be published as a special supplement to a recognized journal and will include a set of recommendations for oral HIV research and guidelines for care. Of particular importance is that the Workshop has been designed and will be conducted so as to ensure that we address the key challenges that lie ahead of this field. Workshop leadership and participants will define the obstacles that impede progress in specific areas of oral HIV/AIDS and cognate science and will prepare a set of specific recommendations and directions for future research. This Agenda for the Future of the Field has been a crucial and consistent product of the previous five World Workshops. Each has informed current and aspiring investigators as well as funding agencies such as the NIDCR.
Public Health Relevance: It is anticipated that those receiving support from this proposed conference grant will take the knowledge acquired at the Workshop back and apply it in their own programs, thus contributing to HIV/AIDS research, care and education in their own countries; particularly in those where such improvements are most sorely needed. The AIDS epidemic has developed into a time bomb that will have dramatic effects on China and South East Asian populations as well as the economies of these countries.
