WASHINGTON, DC—The International AIDS Conference was full of talk of hope and best practices, but no one was giving details on how to reach an “AIDS-free generation.” Still, this conference, like many before it, had several key moments when it was clear that the world of AIDS had changed.

One came at a summit of faith groups held across town from the conference, organized by Saddleback Church’s Rick and Kay Warren.

The message from the Warrens and others: We’re ready to play ball with everyone who wants to end AIDS.

“I don’t have to agree with everything you do to work with you,” Rick Warren told about 400 people who packed a dining hall at Georgetown University. He said he was looking for “co-belligerents,” people like Elton John, whom he talked with at a congressional briefing.

Said Warren, the best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life: “I said to Elton John if you want to end AIDS, I’m on your side … I said if you are serious about it, and you want to take healthcare to every village in the world, you must go through the local church. Because it is the only thing that is in every village in the world.

WASHINGTON, DC— The US government is looking for new partners to fight HIV/AIDS around the country.

And it hopes it found a new one: Walgreens.

At the 19th International AIDS Conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Walgreens Pharmacy will launch a Medication Therapy Management model to improve health outcomes for those living with and affected by HIV. The pilot will run for two years, at 24 sites—12 in urban areas and 12 in rural areas.

WASHINGTON, DC—When Natalie Skipper got sick after spending time in South Africa, no one could figure out what was wrong.

Over the next year, she was diagnosed with—and treated for—several illnesses, including Chron’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. At one point her doctor even told her they would need to remove her colon in order for her to recover. But all of these diagnoses were wrong.

Panels with titles like “HIV/TB collaborative activities,” and “cost-effective approaches to HIV and TB treatment” have speckled the schedule this week at AIDS 2012. That’s because worldwide, one in four AIDS deaths is caused by tuberculosis (TB). Spread through droplets released when an infected person coughs or sneezes, TB can be deadly. In fact, it’s the leading killer of people living with AIDS.

But TB isn’t always tied to HIV/AIDS. Only 12 percent of TB patients have HIV, which means that 88 percent do not, and Skipper, 34, is one of them.