AmsterdamDiner fights resistant HIV

This Saturday the AmsterdamDiner, the annual benefit on behalf of the Dutch Aid Fonds, will raise money for LAASER, a large-scale research program on HIV resistance in 25 Asian and African  countries.

A resistant virus has been mutated and fails to respond to certain anti-retroviral drugs. Patients with resistant HIV therefore need to switch to a different combination of drugs, in order to prevent them from dying. Moses Nsubuga from Uganda is one of these resistant patients. He fortunately met Cissy Kityo, who is a doctor and specialist on resistance. Moses received new drugs just in time and could pick up his life again. Both he and dr Cissy Kityo will be among the guests at the AmsterdamDiner.

The sixteenth Amsterdam Diner on 7 June 2008 in the Heineken Music Hall will be joined by more than 1100 guests. The Amsterdam Diner is yearly organized by the ‘Big Venture’ (De Grote Onderneming, DGO). The Big Venture is a Dutch collective of 80 enterprises that contributes to the improvement of healthcare in developing countries, with a special focus on HIV/AIDS.

The diner in 2007 raised 640.000 euros, which have been invested in the building of an HIV/AIDS clinic in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This clinic will be included in the programs of the Health Insurance Fund in Tanzania.

                >>read extensive press release of the Aids Fonds (in Dutch)>>