This afternoon, as I was walking through an area of community organizations dubbed “The Global Village”, a young Thai man handed me a booklet of Asian Programme Activities – including such titles as “Sex, Drugs and ARVs Behind Prison Bars” — along with a small bag that proved to contain 2 condoms – one lubricated, the other not.

Welcome to Toronto, and the XVI AIDS Conference. This meeting is unlike any other. There are 24,000 scientists, activists, and government officials here. There are celebrities, like Bill Gates and Richard Gere. And there are about 3,000 journalists, including me, William Check, and my daughter, Erika Check.

I’m the crusty old-timer. I’ve been covering HIV and AIDS for 24 years, including four previous AIDS conferences — Amsterdam, Berlin, Vancouver and Geneva. Erika, a relative whippersnapper, attended the last AIDS conference in 2004 in Bangkok. Welcome to our blog from Toronto. We hope to give you a taste of what this meeting is all about. And if we disagree with each other, just remember: father knows best.

This afternoon, as I was walking through an area of community organizations dubbed “The Global Village”, a young Thai man handed me a booklet of Asian Programme Activities – including such titles as “Sex, Drugs and ARVs Behind Prison Bars” — along with a small bag that proved to contain 2 condoms – one lubricated, the other not.

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