The first fusion inhibitor, T-20, available in Australia through clinical trials since 2001, has been a godsend for people with few other treatment options. But while T-20 holds out the tantalising prospect of a whole new class of anti-HIV drugs, taking this treatment is far from easy.

People living with HIV/AIDS are in “distinguished company” in their struggle for social justice and affordable medical care, attendees of the 2003 NAPWA Conference, held in Cairns in October, were told.

p(standfirst). Has social justice lost favour within HIV/AIDS advocacy, or are AIDS organisations just repackaging the same old social justice demands using different rhetoric? MARK CATTELL, JOHN GODWIN and TIM LEACH report on the social justice satellite session at the NAPWA conference.

Justice Marcus Einfeld, an eminent former judge of the Federal Court, will be the keynote speaker at the 2003 NAPWA Conference.

Justice Einfeld, who retired from the Family Court in 2001, is an internationally-respected and outspoken advocate for human rights and justice, UNICEF ambassador for children and an active campaigner for the rights of detained refugees in Australia. As well as serving on the Federal Court, he is a former president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and was an Australian representative at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

p(standfirst). The ninth biennial conference of people living with HIV/AIDS is set to take place in Cairns later this year.