The Lancet HIV: a journal for a new era of AIDS

Now is a critical moment in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Despite frequent proclamations that the end of AIDS is within reach-and a pervasive sense among much of society that HIV is a treatable disease-the job of controlling this most devastating of epidemics is certainly not done. Around 2 million people are newly infected with HIV each year. Access to treatment in key populations is stagnating. Too many people entering HIV care are lost to follow-up. Millions of people living with HIV are underserved at best, ignored or stigmatised at worst. Moreover, as HIV disease evolves to become a chronic infection for those receiving treatment, the interaction of the virus and its medication with other chronic conditions will present a host of new challenges. The Lancet HIV is a journal for a new era in the history of HIV/AIDS.

Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, The Lancet journals have been privileged to publish some of the most important advances in our understanding of the virus and its treatment. We have also sought to strengthen crucial linkages across the community, recognising the importance of not only the best science, but also the parts civil society, patients’ organisations, research scientists, and governments can play in combatting the disease. Given the strong history that The Lancet titles have in the field of HIV/AIDS, why launch a dedicated HIV title? And why now?

Although major advances to control the epidemic have been made, the future of the fight against HIV/AIDS remains deeply uncertain. Scientists and policy makers fell victim twice before to complacency in their efforts to eliminate or eradicate malaria and tuberculosis-diseases once thought to be controlled and in terminal decline. Both diseases held on and returned to puncture our hubris, exacting enormous tolls of human disease and disability. There is a very real danger that the same history could overtake the future of HIV/AIDS.