The Honorable Tommy G. Thompson
Secretary
Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Secretary Thompson,

The International AIDS Conference that will be held in Bangkok, Thailand July 11-14, 2004 is an important venue for highlighting the United States' contribution to fighting the global AIDS pandemic. This fight has been based fundamentally on scientific research on the etiology, natural history, clinical manifestations, treatment, and prevention of HIV infection. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is the foremost biomedical and behavioral science agency in the world, and it has supported the vast majority of important HIV/AIDS research to date. In recent years, that support has been extended to international scientists, particularly from developing countries where HIV/AIDS has had tremendous impact, and has been essential in the development of local research capacity.

We are, therefore, extremely dismayed to hear that HHS, at your direction, has limited participation in the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok-the key AIDS science conference in the world-to only 50 federal employees-20 from NIH, 20 from CDC, and 10 from the entire rest of the Department.

The implications of this decision for the global fight against AIDS are serious. The International AIDS Conference is a biennial gathering of scientists, practitioners, policymakers, and community advocates where new scientific findings are presented for the first time and international research collaborations are formed. It is fundamentally a scientific conference, and it provides the key venue for the exchange of latest research results and the development of new research agendas. Some of the key scientists who present data at the Conference are federal employees at NIH and CDC. Many manage portfolios of extramural research grants, and many conduct their own research, including in intramural laboratories at the agencies. Their presentations are submitted and peer reviewed by Conference committees just the same as non-governmental scientists, and those that are accepted form an important part of the Conference program.

In addition to presenting the latest scientific findings, HHS personnel have other important functions at the International AIDS Conference. NIH staff, for example, host workshops on grant-writing and grant-getting, building research capacity and research skills, and research agenda-setting. They sponsor satellite meetings on key areas of research that may not be highlighted sufficiently at the main Conference. They conduct site-visits to monitor university, clinic, and community locales in proximity to the Conference where NIH-supported research and training activities are taking place. And they convene and participate in meetings with scientific and community collaborators, including key international HIV/AIDS research networks, such as the HIV Prevention Trials Network, HIV Vaccine Trials Network, and Pediatric and Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Networks. None of these activities is frivolous: all are important components of crafting, nurturing, and sustaining international scientific cooperation in HIV/AIDS, which is a stated goal of the current Administration. Moreover, being able to engage in these activities when the international HIV/AIDS community is gathered in one place is both cost- and time-saving, and is eminently efficient.

Curtailing the involvement of federal scientists in the International AIDS Conference deprives international participants access to the latest research findings, opportunities for research support, and opportunities to collaborate. It also sends a chilling message to young scientists in the U.S. and elsewhere who are thinking of embarking on a career in government HIV/AIDS research, but will be dissuaded by concerns that they will not be able to participate in normal scientific exchange.

Already, a number of key scientific activities are in the process of being cancelled, for example an NIH meeting with African, Asian, and other AIDS researchers on the management of resistance to antiretroviral drugs in clinical trials. Withholding U.S. expertise from our international partners jeopardizes the kinds of collaborations you, Ambassador Tobias, and the President have said are vital.

Finally, because the United States bars HIV-infected individuals from entering this country, no such meetings can be held here; and it is necessary for the U.S. to bear the cost of sending federal employees to AIDS scientific meetings outside the country if we are to maintain our edge in the scientific fight against this pandemic.

We urge you to reconsider the severe limitations on HHS staff attending the Bangkok Conference, and to allow the agencies to work with you to determine an appropriate number of people to send.