Volume 6 Number 7 July 2005

This issue of HTB includes reports from the 14th International Drug Resistance Workshop, which as always included research that has implications of clinical care. Most importantly at this meeting, in terms of impact on the numbers of people receiving treatment, were probably the presentations relating to prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT).

Also in this issue we include a comprehensive review of recent successful HPV vaccine studies, and our usual round up of ARV and treatment access news and guide to useful resources published online over the last month.

Together with a group of FDA approvals of Indian generic ARVs, the news that data on TMC-114 will be submitted for consideration for approval based on the results from Phase 2 studies is one of the most exicting hopes for people who have resistant to current drugs.

As one of the UK studies at the resistance workshop highlighted, while this may be a situation that affects a growing minority of patients, the clinical impact of treatment resistance is just as difficult as ever.

The inclusion of methadone and buprenorphine on the list of WHO essential medicines is also one of the most significant advances that activists have been demanding. Without this the prospects of access to ARVs was limited or impossible in many of the countries where the epidemic has has IDU-affected populations.