As of the date of this post (Feb 3, 2021), anyone with an interest in biomedical advances in HIV prevention has an option to apply to earn a free iPad and registration for the Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit.
The Prevention Summit is offered by the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC). It is the premiere organization working to end the epidemic by fighting for racial justice. According to the summit’s website, the conference will highlight “the role that biomedical prevention tools such as PrEP, PEP, Treatment as Prevention (TasP), and U=U have in ending the epidemic.”
“I actually do the love summit. It’s one of my favorite conferences. It gives you updates on HIV treatment and prevention. It gives you a good look at what we need to be doing to promote equity in research and implementation. Last year it focused a lot on women and trans men. I’ll be interested to see what the focus is this year,” says Mikaela Pedersen, Prevention Specialist at the Project.
Scholarship applications are due by 8:00 p.m. EST on February 5, 2021. Applicants can apply for a registration only scholarship or a registration and free iPad scholarship. The application takes only about five minutes, and collects a few demographics as well as a few short answer questions about your involvement and interest in HIV prevention.
Professionals in the field of HIV prevention aren’t the only ones who can benefit from attending the summit. John Shaw, Prevention Services Manager at the Project said, “community level engagement with the HIV Biomedical Summit is vitally important in ending the HIV epidemic. Community level mobilization has been responsible for numerous changes in the world of HIV, from raising awareness to policy change. Increased attendance at this conference by our community members will also help to increase health equity and promote greater access to new HIV prevention tools and interventions.”
If you’re free on March 30-31, 2021, you owe it to yourself to apply for a scholarship to attend the conference. In this time where a pandemic continues to rage on in this country, it’s a beacon of light and hope at what medicine can do to help people from acquiring HIV and keep our communities healthy and well.