The Strategic Use of Antiretrovirals to Help End the HIV Epidemic

This document is a discussion paper, prepared for the 2012 InternationalAIDS Conference in Washington DC, United States of America. It highlights key issues that confront the global community, policy-makers and national programme planners as they seek to make optimal use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) as part of the broader response to HIV.

It also discusses how ARVs could contribute to eventually ending the HIV epidemic. The paper does not in itself constitute a World Health Organization (WHO) guidance document, even though it summarizes existing WHO guidelines related to ARV use, highlights progress in the Treatment 2.0 initiative, and summarizes the next steps in WHO’s normative work related to ARV use.