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International AIDS Society president Fran oise Barr -Sinoussi said the extent of their loss was 'hard to comprehend or express'.
AIDS researchers have vowed to find the cure for HIV/AIDS in memory of their colleagues who lost their lives in the MH17 plane crash. The organisers of AIDS 2014 which is being held in Melbourne confirmed that about six delegates lost their lives on the flight. Earlier reports supported that the flight had over 100 delegates.
International AIDS Society president Fran oise Barr -Sinoussi said the extent of their loss was 'hard to comprehend or express'. Among the confirmed dead was renowned scientist Joep Lange, co-director of the HIV Netherlands Australia Research Collaboration, and his partner Jacqueline van Tongeren, who worked for the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development.
Others on the ill-fated flight were Lucie van Mens and Maria Adriana de Schutter from AIDS Action Europe along with WHO media adviser Glenn Thomas and Pim de Kuijer, a lobbyist for Stop AIDS Now.
Rob Moodie, former chair of global health at the University of Melbourne's Nossal Institute acknowledged that delegates were stunned by the news but they wouldn't stop working for a cure. He said:
'This is a large community and the spirit and energy is amazing and has not been dulled by this act of hatred. If anything it will inspire people even more to work towards finding a cure.'
Forum vice-chair Othoman Mellouk told delegates: 'The best way to honour those who have left us is to keep the fight going on.'
'There's a huge feeling of sadness here, people are in floods of tears in the corridors,' Clive Aspin, a veteran HIV researcher who attended the pre-conference plenary session in Sydney, told Guardian Australia. 'These people were the best and the brightest, the ones who had dedicated their whole careers to fighting this terrible virus. It's devastating.'
Prof. Richard Boyd, director of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, told Guardian Australia added: 'There were some serious HIV leaders on that plane,' he said. 'This will have ramifications globally because whenever you lose a leader in any field, it has an impact. That knowledge is irreplaceable. We've lost global leaders and also some bright young people who were coming through. It's a gut-wrenching loss. I was involved in the aftermath of 9/11 in New York and it brings back that level of catastrophe. But the Aids community is very close-knit, like a family. They will unite and this will galvanise people to strive harder to find a breakthrough. Let's hope that, out of this madness, there will be new hope for the world.'
Trevor Stratton, an HIV/Aids consultant, told the ABC: 'The cure for AIDS may have been on that plane, we just don't know. You can't just help but wonder about the kind of expertise on that plane.'
What is HIV/AIDS?
HIV/AIDS is a disease that affects the human immune system. AIDS is the final stage of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. If an HIV positive person is left untreated, his/her condition deteriorates into full-blown AIDS where the immune system stops working. Thus the immune system is unable to protect the person from diseases or infections. The virus can be transmitted from an HIV positive person through the exchange of body fluids. This can happen through sexual contact, blood transfusion, needles or from a mother to child during pregnancy. Though there is no cure yet, antiretroviral treatment has proven to be very effective. Read: HIV causes, symptoms, treatment and more
With inputs from IANS
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