We have published several supplements aimed at improving health in developing countries over the past month.

Last week, a collection of articles published in BMC Public Health concluded that money available to treat HIV/AIDS is sufficient to end the epidemic globally, but only if we act immediately to control the spread of the disease. This approach defies conventional thinking, which recommends gradual spending over 15-20 years. Canadian researchers led by Robert Smith? (the question mark is deliberate and not a typographical error) found that an aggressive program over five years is the only way to end the epidemic given our current resources. The study, part of a supplement on ‘The OptAIDS project: towards global halting of HIV/AIDS‘ was based on a leading-edge mathematical model developed by mathematicians and biologists, who recently earned acclaim for a study on how best to handle a planetary invasion by zombies.

In a new supplement published in Malaria Journal, the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), the release of sexually sterile male insects to wipe out a pest population, is one suggested solution to the problem of malaria in Africa. The supplement, entitled ‘Development of the sterile insect technique for African malaria vectors‘ reviews the history of the technique, and features details about its use in the elimination of malaria.

Finally, in conjunction with the Aids Vaccine 2009 conference in Paris last month, BioMed Central’s open access journal Retrovirology published the meeting’s scientific abstracts. This meeting was particularly relevant in view of the recent interest in the results of the RV1144 phase III Thai vaccine trial.