The first annual Science Symposium on HIV/AIDS was held on the 22nd and 23rd of September 2008 at the Vigyan Auditorium, SERC, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) campus, at Taramani, Chennai-600113. The event was sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology, YRG CARE, and cosponsored by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, Tamilnadu State Council for Science and Technology (TNSCST)/National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC), New Delhi. About 225 delegates from various states (Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Pondicherry, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra) and one foreign delegate from Tanzania participated in the scientific symposium. Sixty-five percent of the participants were students. A few social scientists, clinicians and nurses also participated in the symposium. The total number of spot registrations was 18. Majority of the participants were from microbiology (80%) and the remaining were from certain other science and medicine disciplines, namely, pathology, biotechnology, and biochemistry. The registration kit contained a symposium proceedings booklet, hard copies and e-versions of recent publications of the national, international HIV/AIDS guidelines and certain interesting review articles on HIV/AIDS (compiled in a compact disc). A total of 18 participants were awarded with scholarships towards registration fees in order for encouraging them to endorse research on HIV/AIDS.
Mr. Subbaraj, IAS (Health Secretary, Tamilnadu Government), presided over the function and delivered the inaugural address. Ms. Supriya Sahu, IAS (Project Director, Tamilnadu State AIDS Control Society, Chennai) released the symposium souvenir.
The scientific sessions began thereafter with presentations from eminent national scientists in the field of HIV from YRGCARE, National AIDS Research Institute (Pune), ICMR (New Delhi), AIIMS (New Delhi), NIMHANS (Bangalore), CMC (Vellore), Dr. ALM PG IBMS, University of Madras. The scientific sessions also included a tele-presentation by an International speaker from Emory University, Atlanta, USA. All the scientific sessions were well received and appreciated by the audience. The symposium participants showed huge interest in the scientific deliberations that followed each presentation (discussion session).
Filled-in feedback forms with comments from participants were collected to evaluate and improve the standard and scientific content of this event in the coming years. While a majority of the feedbacks received are suggestive of satisfaction with the present format of the symposium, a few others have brought about some constructive suggestions.
An official announcement in respect of the Second Annual Science Symposium on HIV/AIDS (HIV SCIENCE 2009 CHENNAI) was also made by the HIV SCIENCE Symposium Secretariat, as the meeting was wound up.
