U.S. Cuts Number of Delegates to World AIDS Meeting

The records show that 30 people from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases alone canceled plans to attend. Seven research reports -- including lectures and poster presentations in which scientists stand by a display of their research and answer questions -- were withdrawn.

Workshops on "laboratory quality assurance" and "sustainable treatment of HIV/AIDS" were canceled. So was one at which NIH officers would have counseled Third World scientists on how to apply for grants from the agency's international program -- an increasingly important part of the NIH AIDS research portfolio. The National Institute of Mental Health canceled a "satellite" conference on the use of the Internet to deliver HIV-prevention messages.

Some of the meetings between NIH researchers and foreign collaborators, scheduled during the Bangkok meeting, will have to be held later, officials said.

The CDC, the other major federal agency involved in AIDS research and prevention, is sending 20 staff members from the United States and a half-dozen from Southeast Asia to Bangkok, compared with 90 who went to Barcelona in 2002. In previous AIDS conferences, the CDC sent 68 people to South Africa, 80 to Geneva, 157 to Vancouver, about 30 to Japan and 50 to Berlin.

Ronald O. Valdiserri, the epidemiologist leading the CDC's delegation, said 46 poster presentations and one lecture were withdrawn. Twenty-nine lectures will be delivered, although in many cases not by the primary investigator. Of the 148 CDC posters still on the schedule, 40 will be published only as summaries in the abstract book and not displayed. A satellite symposium on the use of rapid HIV tests was also canceled.

HHS officials tried to cancel a $250,000 CDC grant to the conference for scholarships for Third World AIDS researchers, said a person familiar with agency. When told the money could not be reclaimed, Thompson's office stipulated it go only to scientists in the countries getting aid under the PEPFAR program.

The NIH, which in the past gave grants to AIDS conferences, is not this year because "it chose not to," said Pierce, Thompson's spokesman.

A CDC official labeled as "bull" the HHS explanation that the cutbacks were primarily to save money.

"This is clearly the result of the booing of Secretary Thompson in Barcelona, which he took quite personally," this person said.

Two years ago, about 30 activists heckled the secretary with shouts of "Shame, shame!" "No more lies" and "Lies, lies!" -- making his 15-minute speech inaudible. Neither of the two speakers who followed -- Richard G.A. Feachem, director of the Global Fund, and Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the World Health Organization -- came to Thompson's defense or criticized the protesters.

Later that day, some of the hecklers met with Thompson, told him of their concerns and urged him not to take the catcalls personally. Several insiders said, however, that some people high in the HHS viewed the jeering as a serious affront to civility, U.S. generosity and the Bush administration.

Within weeks of the conference's end, word circulated that HHS participation might be different the next time.