A Conference on the “Health Crisis in South Asia: Socioeconomic and Opportunistic Disease Consequences of AIDS” will be held at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies

February 9, 2005

For Immediate Release

Contact: Marilyn Wilkes 203-432-3413

A Conference on the “Health Crisis in South Asia: Socioeconomic and Opportunistic Disease Consequences of AIDS” Will Be Held at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies

February 9, 2005. New Haven – A conference on ” Health Crisis in South Asia: Socioeconomic and Opportunistic Disease Consequences of AIDS ” will be held February 18-19, 2005, at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS).

Attracting internationally-renowned scholars, the conference will convene in six sessions to discuss:   “AIDS: An Overview of the Problem and the Government Response,” “Socioeconomic Consequences,” “Understanding Opportunistic Infections, Social Suffering, and Stigma,” “Patents, Pharmaceuticals, Pricing, and Generic Drugs Delivery,” “Where Do We Go from Here?” and “AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria.”

“It is paramount to discuss the health crisis and, in particular, AIDS in South Asia because of the wide-ranging socioeconomic consequences it has on life,” said Professor Srinivasan.  ”India has the second largest number of HIV infections in the world following South Africa and accounts for nearly 10 percent of the global HIV/AIDS prevalence. In the absence of implementation of strong and wide-ranging prevention programs, it is estimated that by 2010 India will have over 20 million HIV/AIDS cases.”

The keynote address, “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals on Health in South Asia,” will be delivered by renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia University). Participants from around the globe include: S.Y. Quraishi (Addl. Secretary and Director General NACO), Suniti Solomon, (YRG CARE, India), Suman Mehta (UNAIDS), Mead Over (World Bank), Janet Fleischman (Consultant to CSIS), Veena Das (Johns Hopkins University), and William Haddad (Biogenerics and Cipla Company).  

During dinner, Ambassador Teresita Schaffer (Center for Strategic and International Studies) will address the participants on “AIDS Epidemic: International Relations and Security Aspects.” Participants from Yale University include: T.N. Srinivasan, Rohini Pande, Nalini Tarakeshwar, Thomas Blom Hansen, Gerald Friedland, Michael Merson, and Peter Salovey.

A program is available at www.yale.edu/ycias/southasia/events/aids.htm.

Convened by T.N. Srinivasan, Samuel C. Park, Jr. Professor of Economics, and Chair, South Asian Studies at YCIAS, the Conference will take place in the Henry R. Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Avenue. It is sponsored by the South Asian Studies Council and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA), with support from the Rustgi Family Fund, the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf fund at Yale, and the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. The conference is free and open to the Yale community.

For more information please contact: South.Asia@yale.edu or Barbara.Papacoda@yale.edu

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Contact Information:
Marilyn Wilkes
Yale Center for International and Area Studies
(203) 432-3413
marilyn.wilkes@yale.edu