More than 5,000 delegates from 133 countries are attending the four-day conference organised by the International AIDS Society (IAS), in partnership with the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine (ASHM).

"With fewer than one-third of people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries having access to life-saving medications, and still fewer with access to proven prevention services, such as condoms and sterile syringes, the goal of universal access by 2010 must remain a priority," said IAS President Dr Pedro Cahn.

"Science has given us the tools to prevent and treat HIV effectively. The fact that we have not yet translated this science into practice is a shameful failure."

Emphasising that "good research drives good policy and programming," the IAS and ASHM recently issued the Sydney Declaration that urges governments and donors to allocate 10 percent of all resources dedicated to HIV programming for research.

Speaking at the opening session, the conference co-chairs stressed that new research investments cannot come at the expense of prevention and treatment programmes, and that such investments must not be seen as an additional burden, but as a critical way of determining what works best and why.

"It is our responsibility as researchers to ensure that clinical and prevention research, as well as capacity building and basic science, continue to thrive in the most affected countries," said Prof David Cooper, IAS 2007 local co-chair.