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Belgrade, May 2007
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“Bringing together HIV specialists
from the Balkan countries was an excellent idea. I believe that
this will be the first step of intense collaboration and hard work
for the benefit of HIV/AIDS patients in the future.”
Deniz Gökengin, Izmir, Turkey, (Belgrade training,
May 2007)
Crucial Issues in HIV Diagnosis and
Management in SE Europe
23–25 May 2007, Sava Centar, Belgrade, Serbia
Co-chairs: Prof Djordje Jevtovic and Dr Mike Youle
training | summary | programme | trainers | presentations | photos
 Dénes
Bánhegyi, Hungary
Dénes Bánhegyi is Head of the 5th
Department of Medicine for Immunology and Tropical Medicine in Budapest.
This department is the only one in Hungary providing medical care
including antiretroviral treatment for HIV-infected persons and
AIDS patients. He also supervises the AIDS Prevention Program as
a part of the National Public Health and Prevention Program. His
research interests include antiretroviral treatment, pharmacokinetics,
treatment adherence, health economics, clinical trials. Dénes
Bánhegyi is a member of several national and international
societies and has published over 100 articles in national and international
journals including J. Clinical Immunology, J. of Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology and five book chapters.
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 Sarah
Bernays, England
Sarah Bernays is a researcher at the Centre for
Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour at London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, University of London. She is a trained anthropologist.
Her particular research interests are social issues around HIV and
she has worked in this area in East Africa, South West Pacific,
the UK and for the last two years in Serbia and Montenegro. She
is the lead researcher on the People living with HIV/AIDS study
in Serbia and in Montenegro.
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 Josip
Begovac, Croatia
Josip Begovac is Professor of Infectious Disease
at the University of Zagreb Medical School. He is also Vice Chair
of the Croatian HIV/AIDS Prevention Committee of the Government
of Croatia and the Head of the Reference Center for HIV/AIDS at
the University Hospital of Infectious Diseases in Zagreb, Croatia.
During the last 15 years he was mainly involved in various public
health and clinical issues concerning HIV/AIDS in Croatia. He is
also the editor and main author of a book on HIV/AIDS in Croatian
language and authored many articles in journals.
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 Sanjay
Bhagani, United Kingdom
Dr Bhagani is a Consultant Physician in Infectious
Diseases and HIV Medicine at the Royal Free Hospital. He has a special
interest in HIV/hepatitis co-infections and runs a large multidisciplinary
HIV/ hepatitis co-infection service at the Royal Free Hospital.
He has been involved in a study of viral relationships and risk-factors
for the recent epidemic of acute HCV in HIV-positive gay men in
the UK.
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 Simon
Collins, United Kingdom
Simon Collins is an HIV-positive treatment advocate,
and works at HIV i-Base, a non-profit organisation, based in London
and founded in April 2000. He is editor of HIV Treatment Bulletin,
a monthly review of latest research that is distributed to 5000
HIV doctors and other medical professionals in the UK. He also edits
a serious of non-technical copyright-free treatment guides for HIV-positive
people, some of which have been translated into over 30 languages.
All publications are available free and online (www.i-Base.info).
He is involved in a wide range of community advisory boards that
develop active involvement of advocates in clinical trial design
and clinical guidelines and also runs treatment workshops with HIV-positive
support groups. i-Base also run a freephone treatment information
phoneline and information request service to ensure patients have
access to the latest information when making treatment decisions
about their healthcare.
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 Gordana
Dragovic, Serbia
Dr Gordana J. Dragovic is a Medical Doctor, Specialist
in Clinical Pharmacology and Teaching Assistant at the Department
of Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of
Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia. She is also a collaborator
at the HIV/AIDS Centre at The Institute of Infectious and Tropical
Diseases in Belgrade. She was trained at the Erasmus University,
Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Royal Free Centre for HIV Medicine,
Royal Free and University College Medical School, University College
London, London, United Kingdom. Her main research interests are
in pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenomics and pharmacovigilance of antiretroviral
drugs.
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 Luminata
Ene, Romania
Dr Enes is a specialist in infectious diseases
at Dr Victor Babes Hospital for Infectious and Tropical Diseases
in Bucharest, Romania. She studied at the University of Medicine
at Targu Mures, Romania, the National Institute for Public Health
in Bucharest, and in Brussels, Belgium. Her focus is paediatrics
and HIV. She has been involved in numerous research projects and
published works.
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 Martin
Fisher, United Kingdom
Martin Fisher is a Consultant in HIV at Brighton
and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. He is responsible for
the outpatient and inpatient management of a large cohort of HIV
infected individuals, leads an active research team, and has established
an HIV/hepatitis co-infection clinic with local hepatologists. He
is an executive committee member of the British HIV Association,
a member of the HIV Special Interest Group of the British Association
for Sexual Health and HIV, and is the Convenor of the national Diploma
in HIV Medicine. His main clinical and research interests are in
antiretroviral therapy, primary HIV infection, HIV and hepatitis
co-infection, and the interplay between HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections.
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 Anna
Maria Geretti, United Kingdom
Dr Anna Maria Geretti is a Consultant Medical Virologist
and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Royal Free Hospital in London,
where she heads the Retrovirology laboratory and also works as a
physician with a specialist interest in HIV medicine, viral hepatitis
and genital herpes. She trained in Italy, the Netherlands and the
UK, and holds an MD in Medicine and a PhD in the virology and immunology
of HIV infection. She is an executive member of the British HIV
Association (BHIVA) Executive Committee and contributes to the production
of the BHIVA Treatment Guidelines. She is an advisor to the British
National Formulary and editor of the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
and the Journal of HIV Therapy.
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 Angelo
Hatazakis, Greece
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 Djordje
Jevtovic, Serbia
Prof Dr Djordje Jevtovic is a Consultant Physician
in Infectious Diseases at The Institute of Infectious and Tropical
Diseases of the Clinical Centre of Serbia and Belgrade School of
Medicine. He is the Head of the HIV/AIDS Centre, the only institute
in the country specialising in treatment of AIDS and related conditions.
He has a special interest in immunology of HIV disease and related
illnesses, as well as in managing different types of responses to
HAART. He has also been involved in a clinical pharmacology study
of antiretroviral drugs, metabolism and toxicity.
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 Relja
Lukic, Serbia
Dr Relja Lukic is a Medical Doctor, Specialist
in Gynaecology and Obstetrics. He works at the Gyneacology &
Obstetric Clinic ”Narodni front”, a teaching hospital
of the hospital of the School of Medicine, University of Belgrade,
Serbia. He is a participant in the national HIV/AIDS programme.
Dr Relja Lukic is taking part in implementation of the programme
called “Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV
(PMTCT) in Serbia and Montenegro”, supported by the Global
Fund (TG UN). He is also an active member of the CORE Team for the
basic education of national health workers, predominantly Gynecologists
& Obstetricians related to PMTCT.
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 Aleksandra
Marjanovic, Montenegro
Aleksandra Marjanovic is a dentist and a specialist
of social medicine. She works at the Institute of Public Health
in the Center for Health Promotion and as head of the Department
for Hard to Reach Populations. She has been involved in behavior
research projects (in the hard to reach populations) which have
started in Montenegro thanks to support of Global Found. She serves
as head of the first VCT center in Montenegro and as secretary in
the national AIDS office. She is also an active member of the CORE
Team for the basic education of national health workers, predominantly
in the Primary health centers in the area of VCT services. She has
a special interest for HIV-positive treatment advocacy to promote
access to diagnostic testing and care for infected individuals and
protection of human rights of PLHIV.
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 Dimitrios
Paraskevis, Greece
Dr Dimitrios Paraskevis is a virologist at the
National Retrovirus Reference Center, at the Department of Hygiene
and Epidemiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University
of Athens, Greece. He trained in Greece and Belgium and he holds
a PhD in the virology and the molecular epidemiology of viruses.
He is a collaborator at the Laboratory for Clinical and Evolutionary
Virology at Rega Institute, Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven, Belgium.
His main research interests are in HIV and HBV drug resistance,
viral diversity, molecular epidemiology, phylogeny and diagnostics.
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 Kholoud
Porter, United Kingdom
Kholoud Porter is an epidemiologist at the Medical
Research Council Clinical Trials Unit in London. She gained an MSc
in Medical Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine and a PhD in AIDS and HIV Infection at University College
London. Her main research interests are in HIV natural history,
primary HIV infection and transmitted drug resistance.
Most of her work has been within industrialised country cohorts
although she is also working on an RCT recruiting in Uganda and
South Africa and within an international consortium evaluating ARV
roll-out programmes in Africa. She is Project Leader for CASCADE,
an EU-funded collaboration of HIV seroconverter cohorts.
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 Ana
Prodanović, Serbia
Ana Prodanović is an anthropologist. She is also
Research and Evaluation Coordinator of the HIV Prevention for Vulnerable
Populations Initiative, at the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP), where she has helped implement an array of qualitative,
behavioural and epidemiological studies among vulnerable populations.
She is co-author of the qualitative study “HIV Treatment Access,
Delivery and Uncertainty”, conducted in Serbia and in Montenegro
in 2005-06. Her research interests are in the field of health and
spirituality.
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 Mervyn
Tyrer, United Kingdom
Mervyn Tyrer is an Associate Specialist in the
Department of Infection and Immunity and a Clinical Assistant and
Research Fellow with the Department of HIV and Thoracic Medicine
at the Royal Free Hospital (London, UK) and supervises the outpatient
services of the Ian Charleson Day Centre. He also has training and
work experience in South Africa. He is liaison with the HIV Research
and Clinical Trials Centre and is co-investigator for a number of
clinical trials. His work also includes teaching of junior doctors
and academic supervision. He has co-authored a number of journal
articles.
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 Serhat
Ünal, Turkey
Dr Ünal is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine,
head of the Department of Internal Medicine and a professor in the
Section of Infectious Diseases at Hacettepe University in Ankara,
Turkey. He trained in Turkey, the US and the UK. His fields of research
interest include the mechanisms of resistance to different antibiotic
groups in gram positive bacteria, the use molecular biology techniques
in diagnosis of infectious diseases, and HIV infection. He participates
in numerous national and international scientific organizations
and has authored numerous articles and edited several books.
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 Mike
Youle, B Med Sci, MB ChB,
United Kingdom
After qualifying at Sheffield Medical School, UK,
Dr Mike Youle helped found the world-renowned Kobler Clinic in London
in 1986 as Clinical Trials Co-ordinator. Other than a 1-year stint
working as a Consultant for the World Health Organization’s
Global Programme on AIDS and the National Programme on AIDS in Kampala,
Dr Youle has devoted most of his career to the clinical care of
HIV patients. Since 1996 he has been the Director of HIV Clinical
Research at London’s Royal Free Hospital as well as an Honorary
Senior Lecturer in Public Health at its associated medical school.
His numerous professional activities currently include a visiting
professorship for Belgrade University and board/committee memberships
for organizations such as the International Association of Physicians
in AIDS Care, the British HIV Association and the MANON Therapeutic
Vaccine Programme. Dr Youle also serves as a trustee of the Red
Hot AIDS Charitable Trust and the National AIDS Manual, as well
as medical advisor to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
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