The HIV pandemic and health systems: an introduction

This chapter introduces the book. The book focuses on relating different countries' responses to their HIV epidemic and focuses on four specific questions. Which health systems have done well in responding to their country's HIV epidemic and why? To what extent do country's GDP per capita, prevalence of HIV, quality of health system or other factors predict success of failure? Can ‘lessons’ be drawn and are there specific factors that are universally positive or negative for HIV control? Are the ‘lessons’ that have been drawn from the most celebrated country responses correct, and, if so, are they helpful to a wide range of countries? Looking across countries should help enlarge the policy repertoire and spur improvements within countries as they discover more about the potential range of responses to common issues that have been tried in other places.