PUTRAJAYA: Kuala Lumpur has been given the honour to host the four-day, 24th International Harm Reduction Conference beginning Oct 12, as a platform to global focal point knowledge sharing, networking and promoting evidence-based best practices in the field of harm reduction.
Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC) president Datuk Dr Raj Karim said Malaysia’s selection would be the first time for the event to be staged in a Muslim-majority country in Southeast Asia, and it was set to highlight issues and challenges in the drug response sector which was specific to the region.
Held every two years, the event is targetted to attract 1,000 international delegates from over 70 countries, including front-line service providers, scientists and researchers, as well as professional people from international and United Nations organisations.
“The International Harm Reduction conference is relevant, especially now, for we are at an extremely critical juncture in our collective responses to both the HIV and drug epidemics.
“The conference is both an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to evidence-based harm reduction programming, and a reminder of the pressing need to accelerate our efforts towards the Millennium Development Goals expiring in 2015,” she said. — Bernama