Unplanned antiretroviral treatment interruptions in southern Africa: how should we be managing these?

Unplanned antiretroviral treatment interruptions in southern Africa: how should we be managing these?

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy is essential for maximising individual treatment outcomes and preventing the development of drug resistance. It is, however, frequently compromised due to predictable, but adverse, scenarios in the countries most severely affected by HIV/AIDS. This paper looks at lessons from three specific crises in southern Africa: the 2008 floods in Mozambique, the ongoing...

How should access to antiretroviral treatment be measured?

Preventing Antiretroviral Treatment Interruptions among HIV/AIDS Patients in Africa

The roll-out of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the poorest parts of the world is one of the greatest public health achievements in history. During the 1990s in Africa and elsewhere, thousands died every day for lack of access to treatment. Back then, courageous flight attendants at Lufthansa airlines, couriers at DHL company, and family members from the African diaspora found clever, albeit no...

Future collapse: how optimistic should we be?

Prof. Kelly FRS is optimistic about the chances of avoiding a collapse, but sadly we find his arguments entirely unpersuasive. For example, have Malthus (or we) really been wrong about food security? Roughly 850 million people are seriously undernourished (lacking sufficient calories) today, and perhaps 2 billion are mal-nourished (lacking one or more essential nutrients) [1]. When Malthus live...

Should we be rethinking how we assess and manage ADHD?

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common clinical problems assessed and treated by child and adolescent psychiatrists, yet many important questions remain unanswered. In this month’s issue of the Journal, two articles address two puzzling issues. First, what can research tell us about how we should be conceptualizing and defining ADHD? Second, although it is wel...