30 years of HIV: where next?

摘要

Kuala Lumpur will host the 2013 International AIDS Society (IAS) meeting from June 30-July 3- This issue of The Lancet will be there too, with its content rich in the diverse diaspora that characterises global efforts to prevent, treat, and ultimately cure the disease that today affects 34 million people worldwide.The emergence of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 1996 heralded a new era in HIV treatment that continues to this day. The scale-up of ART in the past few years is testament to the extraordinary international public health response to the epidemic. In 2011, for the first time, more than half of people eligible for ART in low-income and middle-income countries were receiving it (54%): the glass is just over half full. But accessibility to ART is only the start of the so-called treatment cascade, where individuals with HIV and country programmes have to be prepared for the reality of first-line treatment failure and the commitment to switch therapy, and to adhere to it.