Foreword
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Foreword
Countries asked WHO for simplified guidance on the use of antiretroviral drugs. I believe these consolidated guidelines go a long way towards meeting that request. They offer recommendations for all age groups and populations. They bring clinical recommendations together with operational and programmatic guidance on critical dimensions of treatment and care, from testing through enrollment and retention, and from general HIV care to the management of co-morbidities. The new guidelines ask programmes to make some significant changes. They also require increased investments. I am personally convinced that the future of the HIV response will follow the pattern of the recent past: that is, a constant willingness to build on success and rise to new challenges. WHO estimates that doing so will have an unprecedented impact: global implementation of the guidelines could avert an additional 3 million deaths between now and 2025, over and above those averted using 2010 guidelines, and prevent around 3.5 million new infections. Such prospects – unthinkable just a few years ago – can now fuel the momentum needed to push the HIV epidemic into irreversible decline. I strongly encourage countries and their development partners to seize this unparalleled opportunity that takes us one more leap ahead.
Dr Margaret Chan Director-General, WHO