• Transcript (.pdf)

For more information on this session, including access to speaker presentations, please see the conference Programme-at-a-Glance.

Following on the heels of The Lancet themed issue on HIV prevention launched at AIDS 2008, The Lancet has commissioned a series on the global HIV epidemic among people who use drugs. The series consists of seven original state-of-the-art reviews, and a number of invited commentaries. Following the principle of "nothing about us without us," each paper includes the voices of people who use drugs : these include community participants and leaders from China, Ukraine, Thailand, Malaysia, and the USA. Invited commentaries include the Vienna Declaration, a call to decriminalize people who use drugs, and commentaries from high profile authors including Nora Volkow, the Director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse on biomedical research in addiction, state officials from Mexico will discuss their country's alternative approaches to the war on drugs, and commentaries on women and drug use, alcohol and HIV transmission in Africa, and HIV prevention in prisons by a group from Iran. The series captures a 'sea change' in terms of the international response to HIV prevention and treatment among people who use drugs, a growing segment of the global HIV and AIDS epidemic that has been underappreciated for too long.