After Toronto, 46th ICAAC offers back to basics

After the marathon-like challenge presented by the 16th International AIDS Conference held in Toronto a month prior--a challenge that tested the stamina of even the youngest and fittest of conference-goers--the 46th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), held September 27-30, 2006, in San Francisco, was a welcome relief in its staid and singular focus on the presentation of data offering insights into the challenges a variety of patients and their physicians are facing in the second decade of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), as well as reviews of how to make optimal use of antiretroviral regimens constructed from within the existing HAART armamentarium. The big news at this year's ICAAC, however, was on the antiretroviral pipeline, with previews of how a new generation of drugs may help make the difference between life and death for countless millions of men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS.