London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

As we enter the 30th year since AIDS was first reported, we need to take a long term view recognizing that AIDS is likely to be us for decades to come. That was the message from a lively panel discussion that took place at the London School of Hygiene &Tropical Medicine on World Aids Day, 1st December 2010.

The session also featured a preview of the consortium's forthcoming book AIDS: Taking a long-term view, published by FT Press and available from December 13. The book takes a long-term view of the pandemic's possible progress according to a variety of scenarios which anticipate funding changes, potential, yet uncertain, breakthrough discoveries, virus evolution, legal reform and political and social changes. It concludes with a comprehensive set of recommendations.

The panelists were members and supporters of the aids2031 Consortium, a diverse group of partners who came together in 2007 ago to look at what we have learned about the AIDS response and consider the implications of the changing world around AIDS. The panelists were:

• Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and former Executive Director of UNAIDS
• Geoffrey Garnett, Professor, Imperial College London, UK, chair of the aids2031 Modeling Group
• Justin Parkhurst, Lecturer in Health Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, aids2031 Working Group on Social Drivers
• Alvaro Bermejo, Executive Director, International AIDS Alliance, aids2031 working group on Financing and costing
• Peter Colenso, Head of Human Development Department, Policy Division, DFID

The session was moderated by aids2031 director Heidi Larson.