Getting HIV/AIDS accepted on the political agenda

EDITOR—The editorial by Nicoll and Godfrey-Fausett points out that Commonwealth countries have a disproportionate burden of the HIV and tuberculosis epidemics.1 Of the eight countries with the highest prevalences of HIV, seven—Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, and Swaziland2—are members of the Commonwealth. In none of these countries is the HIV epidemic recognised at the highest government level, despite the predictions, now being borne out, that illness and mortality associated with HIV will be a considerable drain on …