Welcome to the October/December issue of HTB South that includes selected reports from four conferences.

One cause for concern that is coming up time and again is that there seems to be no antiretroviral combination that does not cause fat accumulation.

This was highlighted at the 11th International Workshop on Adverse Drug Reactions and Co-morbidities in HIV. Additionally it appears that there is greater prevalence among women and among Black women.

Richard Jefferys from TAG provides an excellent analysis of the controversial results from the RV144 Thai Vaccine Trial in a report from the 9th AIDS Vaccine Conference. Jeffreys has provided a consistent voice of reason as the trial data was released amid a maelstrom of hyperbole.

Other articles include, When to start guidelines in resource poor settings and an overview of ART programme data, and our final reports from IAS2009.

As this is the last HTB South of the year we would also like to take the opportunity to thank our medical board and everyone who has provided invaluable comments and feedback.

And to all our readers Happy New Year!