The ‘icasa2005forum’ (International Conference on HIV/AIDS in Africa 2005 Forum) is an email forum for the exchange of HIV/AIDS views and news/information between stakeholders, for the purpose of ensuring that the objectives of the year 2005 ICASA scheduled for Abuja, Nigeria are completely realised. Together, we shall make the conference a great opportunity for realising and expanding the current international community’s efforts and commitments towards providing concern, care and cure/antiretroviral therapy (ARV/ART/HAART) for everyone infected and/or affected by HIV/AIDS, especially in the African continent. This approach is a viable imperative because HIV/AIDS care goes beyond ARVs, and includes such integrated interventions like the life-extending treatment (LET) package, and the building of bridges between clinical and community interventions to provide the working partnerships that all HIV/AIDS control programmes require in order to succeed. Such interventions would include the provision of nutritious foods regularly for persons living with HIV/AIDS, prevention and/or treatment of tuberculosis (TB) in persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA), and provision of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV. Others are the institutionalisation of home/community-based care and tackling HIV-related stigma in health care settings, families and communities; provision of substitution therapy like methadone for persons under management for drug usage/addiction; and other treatment methods such as traditional medicines and micronutrient supplementation. African countries, their friend, companies and citizens have been cooperating with the international business and social communities to achieve great things. Now is the time to demonstrate to the world that we can cooperate with each other for the control of the HIV/AIDS scourge and greater advancement of the mother continent and humanity at large.

Moderator: Dr. Uzodinma A. Adirieje