[HIV-AIDS 2008: the year in review]

In the world, the prevalence of HIV is stable, the number of deaths is decreasing, as is the number of infections in children. In Switzerland, the number of new positive tests is approximatively 780 per year and increasing in the MSM population. The CDC recommends a new "opt-out" strategy for HIV testing which is still debated, as is the publication of the absence of risk of HIV transmission in patients with an undetectable viremia. This has however relaunched the concept of treatment as an aid to prevention. New drugs have been commercialised in Switzerland enabling patients with virologic failure to receive an effective treatment. Vaccine trials have failed until now, but the discovery of new viral molecules capable of antagonising cellular defence mechanisms ("cellular restrictions") could become potential new therapeutic targets.