Conference sidelines AIDS activists

Zimbabwean AIDS activists have complained that they were sidelined from the country's first national HIV/AIDS conference. In a statement circulated at the three-day conference, people living with HIV/AIDS said their inputs were ignored, while the views of medical experts and dignitaries took centre stage. "We have long said that HIV and AIDS is not a health issue, but a developmental issue. We are tired of panellists ... [and] doctors telling us acronyms - 'scientific' evidence that has nothing to do with the reality we are living under," the statement read. However, health minister David Parirenyatwa said the conference represented all stakeholders, and he was not aware that activists had been denied a platform to speak.