Taking Acute Care Worldwide: Pragmatic lessons from the HIV pandemic

摘要

The first cases of what we now call HIV/AIDS were recognized just over 30 years ago. The ensuing epidemic brought massive suffering and death, and dramatically underscored globaleconomic and health inequities. The magnitude of the epidemicwas so great that it even threatened the political stability in communities around the globe. In the early years, when AIDS’ aetiology and prognosis were not understood and, worse, laterwhen they were, the picture was grim – a blood borne or sexually transmitted retrovirus was causing a near universally fataldisease occurring in socially excluded or impoverished communities at a time when there had never been an effective treatment, let alone cure, for any viral disease in humans.