Berlin Conference -- Preliminary Checklist

had gone to press.

Each year's International Conference on AIDS is divided into
four tracks: Basic Science (track A), Clinical Science and Care
(track B), Epidemiology and Prevention (track C), and
Psychological and Social Impact, and Social Response (track D).
AIDS TREATMENT NEWS focuses mostly on track B and track A. We
have seen a preliminary schedule for track B, listing presenters
and titles only (not the abstracts of the presentations, which
will be available at the conference site). We have not seen a
schedule for track A.

The list below, together with "Berlin AIDS Conference
Overview" in our last issue (#175), is the beginning of our
checklist of some of the interesting presentations that we intend
to cover at the conference. Note that only those of track B are
listed by date (the Sunday, June 7 round table is not in any
track, since it takes place before the official opening of the
conference). The track A presentations are listed as "date
unknown," since we have not seen the schedule; in fact, we have
not seen their authors or titles either, but are trusting the
judgment of one of the conference organizers who suggested these
to us. We expect to add many more track A reports to our
checklist when we see the track A schedule and abstracts.

Each workshop session consists of six related presentations.
Workshops are listed in the format "B03 #5" -- where "B" is the
track, "03" is the workshop number, and "5" is the presentation
(1-6) within workshop B03.

Besides workshops, there are plenaries and other kinds of
sessions, which are not listed here.

Every year, lack of prior access to schedules and abstracts
has been a problem with these conferences. Many other
conferences do send out abstracts in advance. For a conference
this large, the information should be available in computer form.

Better communication must be planned; for example, when
abstract submission forms are printed, they might need to give
notice that accepted abstracts would be distributed before the
meeting. We do not know if there is still time to make this
change for the 1994 conference in Tokyo. And with different
people managing each conference, there is not enough continuity
of working relationships to build the momentum needed to make
such a change. It may be better, instead, to focus efforts on
computer-based international scientific collaboration, with
physical conferences used to supplement computer communication
when face-to-face interaction is needed.

The information below is preliminary, as schedules may
change. This listing (in this and our previous issue) represents
only a fraction of the research reports likely to be regarded as
most important after the Berlin conference.

Sunday, June 7

* The Concorde early-AZT study will be discussed at a round
table on Sunday June 6, 8:30 a.m. to 11:00; other topics,
including tuberculosis, will be discussed after 11:00 a.m. This
meeting is open, and there is no admission; but you must have
already registered for the International Conference itself, in
order to get through the security. This round table is organized
by Tom Merigan, M. D., of Stanford. It will take place in Halle
10.2/Fairground, at the International Congress Center site.

Other presentations and discussions of the Concorde results
will occur later in the conference.

Date Unknown

A21: #2 anti-idiotypic antibodies

A22: #4 immunogenicity of vaccines

A07: #3 resistance to infection

A19: #1 resistance against protease inhibitors; #5 L661 plus AZT

A20: gene therapy

Monday June 7

B01: #1 "SI" virus; #3 survival; #5 treated natural history,
markers.

Tuesday June 8

B08: #6 sinusitis.

Also note: The Global Network of People Living with
HIV/AIDS will meet Tuesday, June 8, 14.00-16.00 hrs, in Room 9 of
the Conference Center. "Here's your chance to tell the IXth
International Conference on AIDS about access to treatment and
treatment information in your community. This is an opportunity
for people living with HIV/AIDS to speak for themselves. You'll
do the talking and the doctors, government officials, AIDS
service organizations and media will do the listening."
Participants are asked to sign up by 17.00 hrs Monday June 7, at
the booth of the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS,
or AIDS TREATMENT NEWS (booth #12-133).

Wednesday June 9

B13: #5 letrazuril; #6 paromomycin.

B02: #2 markers; #6T-cell functional assay.

B36: #6 "Alpha" trial.

B03: Survival (technical)

B28: #1 and #2 Salk HIV Immunogen; #6 identical twins lymphocyte
transfer.

B05: #5 new ICD p24.

Thursday June 10

B15: #2 CD8 expansion; #3 daunorubicin; #6 doxorubicin.

B11: #2 MSL 109; #5 HPMPC.

B24: #1 ddI; #3 "Alpha" trial; #4 ddI/ddC; #5 Concorde; #6 AZT.

B25: #1 ACTG 155; #2 and #3 resistance; #5 convergent
combination therapy; #6 ddI+AZT vs. ddC+AZT.

B32: #6, Herbal.

B26: #1 Nevirapine; #2 3TC; #3 protease (Roche); #4 L661+AZT,
Frankfurt study; #5 tat; #6 protease (Abbott).

Friday June 11

B29: Natural and traditional therapies. #1 oriental treatments;
#2 medical acupuncture; #3 compound ELS, Tanzania; #4 compound Q,
San Francisco General Hospital; #5 exercise; #6 survey.