This proposal requests funding to facilitate the attendance and active participation of key participants and of young scientists from developing countries at The 5th World Workshop on Oral Health and Disease in AIDS to be held in Hat Yai, Thailand, July 6-10, 2004, immediately preceding the XVth International Conference on AIDS in Bangkok, Thailand, July 11-16, 2004. This is the first time the Workshop will be held in Asia. It is particularly appropriate at this time with Southeast Asia being in a growing center of the AIDS pandemic. We are applying for funds to support a number of individual travel grants to partially cover registration, which includes accommodation and meals ($500), and partial travel expenses for coach round-trip plus local transportation ($800) for each of the speakers and young scientists selected. Because of the extreme limitation on funds for young scientists from developing countries to attend meetings of this caliber, the request is intended in large part to support foreign participants. It is anticipated that those receiving support from the proposed conference grant will take the knowledge acquired at the Workshop back and apply it in their own programs thus contributing to HIV/AIDS research, care and education in their own countries, particularly in those where such improvements are most sorely needed. The AIDS epidemic has developed into a time bomb that will have dramatic effects on Thailand and South East Asian populations as well as the economies of these countries. Thailand experienced its first case of AIDS in 1984. At present, a cumulative total of 185,907 AIDS cases with a 27.6% death rate has been reported with an estimated 1 million HIV-infected cases in 2001. The International Workshops have proved to be invaluable in that they enable clinicians and scientists working in the field to exchange ideas and information on an interpersonal level. SE Asian communities will benefit enormously from the latest information on diagnosis and treatment brought fresh to our researchers, university lecturers, clinicians and students. The workshop will make it possible to consider specific Asian problems, to discuss the steps being taken to address these problems and to offer alternative approaches. The findings will be published as a special supplement to a recognized journal and will include a set of recommendations for oral HIV research and guidelines for care.
