Friday, July 18, 2014

100 AIDS researchers may have been killed in crash

7/18/2014


As many as 100 AIDS researchers, activists and health workers who were traveling to a conference in Australia may have been on board the Malaysian jetliner shot down over Ukraine, according to unconfirmed reports.
"There's been confirmed a number of senior people who were coming out here who were researchers, who were medical scientists, doctors, people who've been to the forefront of dealing with AIDS across the world," Victoria Premier Denis Napthine told reporters in Melbourne on Friday. "The exact number is not yet known, but there is no doubt it's a substantial number."
The Australian newspaper reported that up to 108 delegates to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, which starts Sunday, are believed to have died on flight MH17.
The International AIDS Society issued a brief statement Thursday night saying that "a number of colleagues and friends" were on the flight.
"At this incredibly sad and sensitive time the IAS stands with our international family and sends condolences to the loved ones of those who have been lost to this tragedy," the statement said.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that among the dead are researcher Joep Lange, of the University of Amsterdam, and World Health Organization spokesman Glenn Thomas.
Lange is well known in the field, with dozens of publications. He led clinical trials involving antiretroviral therapies, and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. He was president of the International AIDS society from 2002-2004, and is a founder and co-editor-in-chief of the journal Antiviral Therapy.
A firefighter puts out fires in the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 that crashed near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine.
A firefighter puts out fires in the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 that crashed near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine. (Photo: Alexander Khudoteply, AFP/Getty Images)
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  • A firefighter puts out fires in the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 that crashed near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine.
  • A man walks in the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 that crashed near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine.
  • Relatives of people onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam react outside the family holding area at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang on July 18.
  • People inspect the debris after a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with 295 people on board crashed near Grabovo, Ukraine, July 17. Ukrainian military officials say the Boeing 777 passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down by a missile as it flew over rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
  • A woman looks on before lighting a candle in front of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kiev on July 17 to commemorate passengers of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur which crashed in eastern Ukraine.
  • People walk past the crash site near Grabovo.
  • Relatives of passengers aboard the shot down Malaysian airliner walk past members of the press as they arrive at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. The flight was carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
  • People inspect the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Grabovo, Ukraine, July 17. Both the government and the pro-Russia separatists fighting in the region denied any responsibility for downing the plane.
  • The wreckage from a Malaysia AIrlines jet rests near Shaktarsk.
  • A man gestures at the crash site.
  • Wreckages from the crashed Malaysia Airlines jet rests on a road near Shaktarsk in rebel-held east Ukraine.
  • Wreckages from the Malaysian airliner is scattered across a road.
  • People walk through the debris at the crash site.
  • People stand at the scene of the crash.
  • A man points to the wreckage of the Malaysian airliner.
  • Debris burns at the scene of the crash.
  • Luggage from the airliner sit in a field.
  • Wreckage from the airliner burns in a field.
  • People inspect the crash scene.
  • A person looks at debris from the Malaysia Airlines jet.
  • People stand next to the wreckage of the passenger jet.
  • Aircraft wreckage is strewn across a field.
  • Debris is scattered in a field in Ukraine.
  • A piece of the Malaysia Airlines jet.
  • Smoke rises from the scene of the crash.
  • An amateur video captured a fireball when a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane carrying 295 people crashed.
  • The aircraft involved in Malaysia Airlines crash.
  • Smoke rises from the scene of a possible crash of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet near Donetsk.
  • A map of the flight route of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 ends over Donetsk, Ukraine.
  • Smoke rises from the scene of a possible crash of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet near Donetsk.
Chris Beyrer, president-elect of the IAS, said that if reports of Lange's death were true, "then the HIV/AIDS movement has truly lost a giant."
According to his Linked-In profile, Thomas had been a spokesperson for the WHO since March 2003, and had spent five years as a BBC News producer before that.
Separately, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance confirmed the names of two other Dutch victims: Pim de Kuijer, a lobbyist at the group Stop AIDS Now, and Martine de Schutter, a program manager at Bridging the Gaps, an organization that lobbies for universal access to HIV prevention.
De Schutter, who had lived in Argentina, Bolivia and the United States, in addition to the Netherlands, was a cultural anthropologist specializing in gender, sexual and reproductive health, including AIDS.
"Pro-active defence of human rights and the right to good health is at the core of my work," she wrote in her Linked-in profile. "Throughout my (professional) life I hope to contribute to making the world a better place to live, work and love."


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