Reports Of ‘More Than 100’ AIDS Researchers Dead Are False Says AIDS Conference

Immediately after a Russian missile shot Malaysian flight MH17 out of the sky on Thursday, Australian media claimed “more than 100” AIDS researchers were aboard and killed. The International AIDS Society says that’s false — so how many did we lose?

The International AIDS Society has announced that six delegates — not “108” or “more than 100” as reported by the Australian press — to the 20th annual International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia died Thursday aboard the Malaysian airliner in an attack that killed all 298 on board. The plane was downed by a Russian missile believed to be operated by Russian-backed Ukraine separatists. 

“Tributes were paid,” including a moment of silence, the IAS said in a statement marking last night’s opening session of the 20th International AIDS Conference, “to the six delegates who lost their lives aboard flight MH17. A one minute global moment of remembrance was held in their honour with eleven former, present and future Presidents of the International AIDS Society onstage together with representatives from those organizations who lost colleagues, the World Health Organization, AIDS Fonds, Stop AIDS Now, The Female Health Company, the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development and members of the Dutch HIV research community.”

Noting that the “100 or more…number has now been debunked,” Mother Jones’ James West reports at least “six are confirmed dead, including the celebrated Dutch AIDS researcher Dr. Joep Lange, 59, who was en route to the world’s largest AIDS conference, held this year in Melbourne, Australia. All 298 people on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed.”

Early reports that around 100 delegates were lost aboard MH17—repeated by President Obama on Friday—now appear to have been wrong. IAS has confirmed the names of six advocates who had been scheduled to attend the conference, but said that the number may increase with new information.

“The number that we have confirmed through our contacts with authorities in Australia, in Malaysia, and Dutch authorities as well, is six people,” said IAS president Françoise Barré-Sinoussi. “It may be a little bit more, but not the numbers that have been announced.”

Mother Jones reports the names of those confirmed dead include Dr. Joep Lange and his partner Jacqueline van Tongeren of the the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development. Also, “Pim de Kuijer, an AIDS campaigner for Stop Aids Now!; Martine de Schutter, a program manager at the same organization; Lucie van Mens, director of support at the Female Health Company; and Glenn Thomas, a former BBC journalist and spokesman for the World Health Organization.”

Craig McClure, UNICEF’s top HIV/AIDS advocate, “said it was important the conference go ahead to honor these six lost colleagues,” MJ adds.

“This community, we’ve lost 35 million people in the last 30 years to AIDS, so we know what it means to lose friends, to lose patients, to lose family members,” he said. “So this is not the first loss, and one of the things that has come together over the years is our collective sense of loss and our anger at the epidemic, and the loss of Joep and Jacqueline and the others on that plane just brings us together again and reminds us of why we’re doing this work, and gives us again that sense of solidarity.”

IAS president Barré-Sinoussi urged delegates to honor their memory by redoubling efforts to fight AIDS. “I strongly believe that all of us being here for the next week to discuss and learn is indeed what our colleagues who are no longer here with us would have wanted,” she said.

 

Image: The Plenary room during Sunday night’s #AIDS2014 opening ceremony. Photo by AIDS2014 via Twitter.
Hat tip: Elaine Clisham