Cryptococcal ceningitis is one of the main causes of death of people with HIV. The tests and medicines to diagnose and treat it exist but remain inaccessible to most. A global strategy is needed.
Marios Koutsakos, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Scientists around the world are trying to come up with universal coronavirus vaccines to combat the emergence of variants. But what are these vaccines and are they even possible?
Where there are not enough health workers to deliver medical care, one solution is to move certain tasks to less specialised health workers, a process called task-shifting.
COVID-19 restrictions created life-threatening challenges to female sex workers as they weren’t able to access their medication, support or their clients.
Local and national governments in west and central African countries must prioritise investment in providing access to HIV testing for all pregnant women.
Parents have the primary role of educating their children about their sexuality. But cultural beliefs and taboos about sex can work strongly against their efforts.
The HIV/AIDS response played out over a much longer trajectory than COVID-19. But it is, in some respects, a shining example of what can be achieved when countries and people work together.
If the world is single-minded and focuses purely on combating one pandemic, forgetting others, the effects of other morbidity and mortality on healthcare systems will be seen for a long time to come.
One of the main challenges remains that diagnostics and drugs for people suffering from advanced HIV aren’t readily available. This group of people is vulnerable to deadly opportunistic infections.
As viruses are transmitted from person to person they are constantly mutating and replicating. Could the SARS-CoV-2 virus evolve to evade the new vaccines that have just been developed?
To better anticipate and manage the emergence of new pandemics, a paradigm shift is needed to take into account the complex interactions between human health, animal health, the environment and the economy.
Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital and Consultant Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Professor of medicine and deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand