Scientists, policymakers, practitioners and communities have spent a quarter of a century attempting to deal with HIV. The virus has nevertheless become pandemic and one of the most significant challenges to health and development today.
Efforts to break the cycle of transmission have largely failed, the impacts of the virus are eroding societies in the poorest countries, and attempts to roll out treatment are raising new challenges. As IDS starts to develop a new programme of work on AIDS and development, this IDS Policy Briefing aims to assess past and current efforts to understand the disease in relation to development and to identify key policy and research gaps.