AIDS community mourns deaths of 100 delegates
SHADOWS IN A FIELD OF SUNFLOWERS Ukrainian coal miners on Friday take on the grim task of searching in a meadow of the flowers of summer in the village of Rozypne for pieces of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, which was shot down by separatist rebels near the border with Russia in strife-torn eastern Ukraine on Thursday. All 298 people aboard the plane, including three Filipinos, were killed. AP
MELBOURNE—The world AIDS community was in mourning on Friday with as many as 100 passengers reportedly on a crashed Malaysia Airlines plane heading to Australia for a global conference on the epidemic.
Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, believed hit by a surface-to-air missile over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, was due to connect with another flight to Melbourne.
Unconfirmed reports in Australia said as many as 100 of those who died were delegates heading to Melbourne for the 20th International AIDS Conference, due to begin on Sunday.
The Sydney Morning Herald said those attending a pre-conference meeting were told around 100 of their colleagues were on the plane, including former International AIDS Society president Joep Lange.
The International AIDS Society confirmed “a number of our colleagues and friends” were killed, but has not said how many.
Asked whether 108 people attending the conference were on the flight, International AIDS Society president Francoise Barre-Sinoussi said she was not sure.
In a tweet, UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said “many” delegates were on board.
“My thoughts & prayers to families of those tragically lost on flight #MH17. Many passengers were en route to #AIDS2014 here in #Melbourne,” he said.
The International AIDS Conference is a forum for campaigners to highlight developments in fighting the disease.
It was this year expected to channel anger about laws in Africa that stigmatize homosexuality. In the former Soviet Union that punish intravenous drug users a crackdown now extended to Russian-annexed Crimea.
Barre-Sinoussi said it would go ahead despite the tragic news.
“The decision to go on, we were thinking about them because we know it’s really what they would have liked us to do,” she said.
Some 12,000 participants are due to take part, joined by former US President Bill Clinton and rock singer and poverty activist Bob Geldof.
‘Desperately sad news’
Australia’s National AIDS Trust paid tribute to Dutchman and leading AIDS researcher Lange, who has been involved in HIV research and treatment since 1983.
“Reports Joep Lange died in Malaysian plane crash today, with other scientists on way to @AIDS conference. Desperately sad news,” it said on Twitter.
American academic and AIDS activist Gregg Gonsalves tweeted that “lots of AIDS researchers, activists, officials on downed Malaysia Airlines flight to Melbourne for Int’l AIDS Conference,” naming Lange.
The International AIDS Society said it was devastated.
London-based AIDS campaigner Mark Gettleson said some of those on the flight were from the STOPAIDSNOW group, which works to offer treatment to those affected by HIV and AIDS.
Some 35 million people live with HIV although global AIDS-related deaths and new infections have fallen by more than a third in a decade, raising hopes of beating the killer disease by 2030. AFP
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