Evidence for Action on HIV Treatment and Care Systems in low and middle-income countries: background and introduction

Despite the unprecedented scale-up of treatment for HIV in low and middle-income countries over the past decade, 49% of adults and 77% of children in need of HIV treatment still do not have access to it. ART programmes that were initially set up as an emergency response now need to be adapted to ensure that they include all the essential components and are well integrated with other health services; meet the needs of special groups, including children, adolescents, pregnant women and older people; address the mental health needs of HIV-positive people; and monitor as well as report their impact in valid and comparable ways.This supplement is an output from the Evidence for Action on HIV Treatment and Care Systems research programme consortium. Evidence for Action was a 5-year, multidisciplinary research programme, which ran from 2006 to 2011, with partners in India, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia and the United Kingdom.The primary aim of this supplement is to stimulate reflection and provide guidance on what should be in the package of HIV treatment and care systems, as national programmes look to maintain the major advances of the past decade and scale-up treatment to the other 50% of people in need of it.