SciDev.Net

The research community's failure in the past 25 years to develop either a vaccine or a cure for HIV/AIDS underlines the need to be more, not less, scientific.

Disappointing results of clinical trials of a promising pair of new AIDS vaccines have highlighted the dilemmas faced by those determining strategy in this field. Fortunately, reactions on all sides indicate a willingness to use science as the principal basis of their decisions.

New research shows that treating HIV/AIDS patients need not be as expensive as feared. But that result must not fuel complacency about the disease; rather it should encourage more grass-roots engagement.

Julie Clayton argues that the successful strategy behind promising results now emerging from research into microbicides as a way of controlling HIV infection has important implications for other fields of biomedical research.

Spending on HIV/AIDS has become a litmus test of the depth of international commitment to helping the developing world — and of the spirit of generosity in which is offered.

Science communicators have an important role to play in helping to overcome the social prejudice and political short-sightedness that both form major barriers to preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The continued reluctance of the South African government to accept the scientific consensus on the cause of AIDS could undermine broader efforts to promote sustainable development.

A welcome decision by the European Union to open its Framework research programme to developing countries must not become an opportunity to create a new cycle of dependency by the South on the North.