London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Thirty years after the first case was reported, new science has now shown that treating people with HIV medication (anti-retrovirals) can substantially reduce the risk of transmission while smarter investments in prevention strategies have opened up a debate on the prospect of ending AIDS.

Teams at the School are working hard in the fight against HIV/AIDS in a range of ways. For example, major funding was recently awarded for the PopART project in Africa, which will test the impact of a combination of house-to-house voluntary testing for HIV, male circumcision and offer of immediate initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all those testing HIV-positive.

But as the researchers behind the recently-published Good Health at Low Cost – 25 years on point out, a crucial weapon against the disease is a functioning health system to ensure those in need receive treatment and are regularly monitored. The LSHTM project (funded by the Rockefeller Foundation) holds some clues to help policy-makers in low and middle income countries build stronger health systems - useful at a time when countries around the world contemplate how to tackle their HIV/AIDS epidemics.

One of the editors, Dr Dina Balabanova, said: "Health systems represent the cornerstone in achieving universal access targets for HIV treatment and prevention. The lessons in our book go some way in helping policy-makers understand the key pillars required in transforming health systems and with it health care."

The School’s Director, AIDS expert Professor Peter Piot, has meanwhile contributed to a special feature for the Daily Telegraph: World AIDS Day 2011: what we now know