Research priorities in the field of HIV and AIDS in Iran

HIV is a multidimensional problem. Therefore, prioritization of research topics in this field is a serious challenge. We decided to prioritize the major areas of research on HIV/AIDS in Iran.

In a brain-storming session with the main national and provincial stakeholders and experts from different relevant fields, the direct and indirect dimensions of HIV/AIDS and its related research issues were explored. Afterward, using the Delphi method, we sent questionnaires to 20 experts (13 respondents) from different sectors. In this electronic based questioner, we requested experts to evaluate main topics and their subtopics. The ranges of scores were between 0 and 100.

The score of priorities of main themes were preventive activities (43.2), large scale planning (25.4), the estimation of the HIV/AIDS burden (20.9), and basic scientific research (10.5). The most important priority in each main theme was education particularly in high risk groups (52.5), developing the national strategy to address the epidemic (31.8), estimation of the incidence and prevalence among high-risk groups (59.5) and developing new preventive methods (66.7), respectively.

The most important priorities of researches on HIV/AIDS were preventive activities and developing national strategy. As high risk groups are the most involved people in the epidemic, and they are also the most hard-to-reach sub-populations, a national well designated comprehensive strategy is essential. However, we believe with a very specific and directed scheme, special attention to research in basic sciences is necessary, at least in limited number of institutes.