With more than 30 million people living with HIV and over 50% of the population in some regions of the world such as Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Middle East, HIV/AIDS is considered pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), who recently published a report highlighting the progress made over the last two years in this field.

In the fight against HIV/AIDS, access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) plays a pivotal role. While major progress has been made towards the goal defined at the 2005 UN Word summit of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care by 2010, major efforts are still required to reduce inequalities in access to treatment. Moreover, populations at high risk of HIV are also usually the most at risk of developing opportunistic infections and co-infections such as tuberculosis and toxoplasmosis, so health strategies must go beyond ensuring equitable access to ART in low income areas.

To highlight manuscripts published in BMC Research Notes that explore various aspects of HIV/AIDS and its relation to opportunistic diseases and co-infections, the journal has launched a new topical series on HIV/AIDS and opportunistic diseases and co-infections.

This series – edited by Prof Subhash Parija of the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research,
India – presents a compilation of studies covering all aspects of HIV and known opportunistic malignancies and co-infections associated with HIV/AIDS. The objective of this series, in line with the goals and aims of BMC Research Notes, is to encourage scientists and public health experts to share in a rapid and barrier-free way information that could help the scientific and medical communities whose goal is to reduce the burden of populations affected by the HIV.

Guillaume Susbielle, In-house Editor – BMC Research Notes