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The head of the Joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS has joined South
African politicians and researchers in urging scientists not to boycott the 13th
International Conference on AIDS, which is due to begin in Durban on 4 July.
Some researchers had suggested they might stay away to protest against the
controversial AIDS policies of the South African government, which recently
questioned whether HIV was really the cause of the disease
(see p 14). But
UNAIDS chief Peter Piot said last week that a boycott “would only serve to
deviate attention from the seriousness of the issues at hand”.…