This year's BHIVA Autumn Conference was once again held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in the heart of London. The conference was considered extremely successful and received very positive feedback from delegates. As customary the autumn conference included parallel sessions with the Children's HIV Association, which this year has been held in collaboration with BPAIIG.

The annual HIV/Hepatitis Co-infection Conference will be held separately later in the year with some exciting changes and we are delighted to announce that a number of UK/European organisations have agreed to join the British HIV Association (BHIVA) as partners for this forthcoming event. The event has been named Five Nations Conference on HIV and Hepatitis and will be held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on 8-9 December 2014.

Delegate feedback from the autumn conference reported that the programme contained many interesting and thought provoking presentations and that these were highly relevant to the professional and educational needs of the audience. 527 delegates attended the conference and this number included 10 BHIVA scholarship winners, 10 Research Award winners and over 50 community/voluntary sector registration places.

'Another excellent conference, keep up the good work'

'Beautiful lecture theatre and fantastic stage design'

'Good balance this year of research, science and practical/clinical guidance'

Dr David Asboe, Chair, BHIVA

Dr Chloe Orkin, Conference Local Host

Dr Alastair Miller, Conferences Subcommittee Chair

Conference Programme

The conference programme covered a wide range of topics relevant to HIV including BHIVA's guidelines for 'Treatment of HIV-1-positive adults with antiretroviral therapy' and 'Management of hepatitis viruses in adults infected with HIV'. Other topics that were covered included hepatitis C treatment, pregnancy, primary infection, antiretroviral therapy, HIV and ageing, HIV persistence and paediatric HIV cure, tuberculosis and HIV. The conference also contained lectures on best practice management for patients living with HIV and an Interactive Clinical Conundrums session focusing on PrEP and PEPSE. The BHIVA Foundation Lecture covered 'CCR5 knock-out gene therapy trials.'

Our international speakers included Professor Jintanat Ananworanich, Professor Jeffery Lennox and Dr Geoffrey Nichol.

Professor Jintanat Ananworanich, USA

Professor Jeffery Lennox, USA

Dr Geoffrey Nichol, USA

Acknowledgements and Thank You's

During the conference a formal thank you was made by the Chair of the British HIV Association to the full BHIVA Conference Subcommittee. In addition the following Committee Members were presented with gifts of appreciation:

• Dr Ranjababu Kulasegaram, Retiring BHIVA Hepatitis Society Subcommittee Chair

• Professor Clifford Leen, Retiring Honorary Treasurer

• Dr Mark Nelson, Retiring Education and Scientific Subcommittee Chair

• Dr Alastair Miller, Chair of the Conferences Subcommittee

• Dr Chloe Orkin, Conference Local Host

Dr David Asboe with Dr Ranjababu Kulasegaram	Dr David Asboe with Professor Clifford Leen
Dr David Asboe with Dr Alastair Miller	Dr David Asboe with Dr Chloe Orkin

Events

As usual, a drinks reception was held on the Thursday evening of conference and this event was well attended and enjoyed by all.

Prizes and Awards

There were a number of awards presented at this year's Autumn Conference; the BMS Exchange Scholarships in collaboration with BHIVA and SAHIVCS, the Gilead / BHIVA Exchange Scholarships, the Gilead / BHIVA Research Award, the Brian Gazzard Lectureship in HIV Medicine, the BHIVA Research Awards and the BHIVA Don Jeffries Research Award.

BMS Exchange Scholarships in collaboration with BHIVA and SAHIVCS

BMS supported 6 exchange scholarships and the scholarship programme included a placement for 3 BHIVA Members at Hospitals in Botswana for two weeks. In addition, the South African HIV Clinicians Society (SAHIVCS) selected three clinicians to come to the UK to take part in clinical attachments for two weeks in hospitals in London.

BMS representative Miss Megan Jones, Lord Norman Fowler and BHIVA Chair Dr David Asboe presented the BMS Botswana Exchange Scholarship winners (in collaboration with BHIVA and SAHIVCS) with a certificate in recognition of their scholarship. From left: Dr Tommy Palai, Ms Itireleng Mokhathi, Lord Norman Fowler, Dr Antoinette Boima, Dr Elizabeth Williams, Miss Megan Jones, Dr Katrina Stegmann, Mr Asim Ali and Dr David Asboe.

The winners of this scholarship are:

BHIVA winning scholars

• Mr Asim Ali, Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London

• Dr Katrina Stegmann, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London

• Dr Elizabeth Williams, Homerton University Hospital, London

SAHIVCS winning scholars

• Dr Antoinette Boima, Selebi Phikwe Government Hospital

• Ms Itireleng Mokhathi, Associated Fund Administrators, Gaborone

• Dr Tommy Palai, Ministry of Health, Gaborone

Gilead / BHIVA Exchange Scholarships

Gilead has supported the award of 2 exchange scholarships for BHIVA members to travel to Argentina and Brazil. The first is for those working in the field of infectious diseases and the second for members with an active role in clinical trials or who have a research role. The exchange scholarship will enable winning applicants to travel to Buenos Aires / Rio de Janeiro to take part in a placement at an Infectious Diseases Unit/HIV unit for 1–2 weeks. The programme will provide a unique opportunity to increase understanding and to gain experience of the treatment and management of infectious diseases overseas and for scholars to disseminate this information and experience when they return to the UK.

Gilead representative Mr Alan Smith, Lord Norman Fowler and BHIVA Chair Dr David Asboe presented the Gilead / BHIVA Exchange Scholarship winners (in collaboration with BHIVA and Gilead) with a certificate in recognition of their scholarship. From left: Lord Norman Fowler, Mr Alan Smith, Dr Daniel Bradshaw, Dr Oyewole Durojaiye and Dr David Asboe.

The winners of this scholarship are:

BHIVA winning scholars

• Dr Chris Durojaiye, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff

• Dr Daniel Bradshaw, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London

SAHIVCS winning scholars

• Dr Ana Monczor, Helios Salud, Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Dr Ana Beatriz Sampaio, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Gilead / BHIVA Research Award

This prize was established to provide financial support to facilitate a high-quality, HIV-related research project undertaken by BHIVA members of a non-consultant grade, including non-clinicians, under the age of 35. Trainees in all medical specialties are required to undertake a period of research as an integral part of their higher professional training. However, funding such research is not always easy. Research proposals are invited for submission and reviewed by a BHIVA-appointed panel. The winning submission is awarded up to £3,750 to facilitate their research.

Gilead representative Mr Alan Smith, Lord Norman Fowler and BHIVA Chair Dr David Asboe presented Dr Olubanke Davies with the BHIVA / Gilead Research Award for 2014.

The recipient of the award in 2014, Dr Olubanke Davies from Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, London received the award towards her research project entitled 'The role of the gut mucosa in the onward transmission of hepatitis C (HCV) in HIV positive individuals'.

BHIVA Research Awards Winners 2014

Originally launched in 2006, the BHIVA Research Awards are open, through competitive application, to all BHIVA members for research projects that impact on the improvement of clinical care and management of people living with HIV in the UK. A minimum of £30,000 per annum is available, to be distributed amongst the successful applicants according to the quality of the submitted proposals, with a maximum of £10,000 award per application. The awards panel is chaired by an independent chair. Applications for grants or funding for research or other projects made directly to the Association are reviewed by the BHIVA Executive Committee and considered based on merit and their relevance to the objectives of BHIVA.

The winners of this scholarship are noted below:

• Dr Daniel Bradshaw, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust

• Dr David Chadwick, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

• Dr Kate El Bouzidi, University College London

• Dr Phil Hutchinson, Manchester Metropolitan University

• Dr Gurmit Jagjit Singh, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust

• Dr Tom Levett, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

• Dr Hoi Ping Mok, University of Cambridge

• Mr Robert Pralat, University of Cambridge

• Dr Sarah Rowland-Jones, University of Oxford

• Miss Zoe Wallace, University of Oxford

Brian Gazzard Lectureship in HIV Medicine

The lectureship was set up by BHIVA in honour of its Founding Chair, Professor Brian Gazzard, and is now in its 10th year. The lecture is selected to be presented from a short list of proposed topics and eminent speakers put forward for consideration by the BHIVA Conferences Subcommittee.

Lord Norman Fowler (left) presents Professor Andrew Leigh Brown (right) with a commemorative trophy bowl and engraved pen in recognition of his Lectureship Award.

This annual prize was awarded to Professor Andrew Leigh Brown, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the University of Edinburgh for his presentation 'Phylogenetics and transmission networks'.

The BHIVA Don Jeffries Research Award

In 2012, as a memorial to Professor Donald Jeffries OBE, the BHIVA Education and Scientific Subcommittee instituted an award for the top-scoring project in the BHIVA Research Awards applications. This award has been set up in perpetuity, to honour Professor Jeffries' unerring support of the British HIV Association.

Dr David Asboe (left) presented Dr Kate El Bouzidi with a commemorative engraved trophy bowl in recognition of her Research Award.

This annual prize was awarded to Dr Kate El Bouzidi, for her presentation 'A comparison of whole genome sequencing with routine pol sequencing to describe HIV transmission clusters, better understand HIV transmission, and inform public health interventions'.