Representatives of 14 Central and East African Nations Attend HIV/AIDS Conference in Ethiopia
Nearly 100 representatives from 14 Central and East African nations yesterday met at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS on the region and to develop a plan of action, Agence France-Presse reports. In addition to the representatives from Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and Uganda, HIV-positive individuals and members of local and international organizations gathered to participate in the meeting, which will conclude on Friday. Each nation represented at the conference is scheduled to develop an action plan indicating how it will combat HIV/AIDS over the next two to three months. "This meeting isn't just a talking shop," an HIV-positive attendee from Central Africa said of the conference, adding, "The aim is to make the most of the experience in each country, to see what works and, above all, to break the taboos that surround the disease" (Agence France-Presse, 9/3).
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