European contribution to the science, prevention and management of HIV infection

At the International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver the leaders of the European Concerted Action on AIDS were commissioned to report on the State of the Art and Future Priorities in Research on HIV infection and AIDS. The report is addressed to the scientific community at large, to the members of the Institutions of the European Union, and for consideration at the forthcoming preparation of the 5th Framework Programme of the EC. In general, there is a realisation that the epidemic is too complex a problem for any one country to solve, and the virus does not recognise national boundaries. Furthermore, the severity of the epidemic in developing countries has been of great concern and an additional reason in making AIDS a high priority for research among the EC scientists. Basic and medical scientists have pooled their resources to work as single multi-national teams. A brief outline of the report of the eight working groups, covering the entire field of AIDS is presented below.