An estimated 2·1 million individuals are newly infected with HIV every year. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have reported conflicting evidence for the association between education and HIV risk, and no randomised trial has identified a causal effect for education on HIV incidence. The researchers aimed to use a policy reform in secondary schooling in Botswana to identify the causal effect of length of schooling on new HIV infection.

After more than a decade of major achievements, the AIDS response is at a crucial juncture, both in terms of its immediate trajectory and its sustainability, as well as its place in the new global health and development agendas. In May, 2013, the UNAIDS–Lancet Commission—a diverse group of experts in HIV, health, and development, young people, people living with HIV and affected communities, activists, and political leaders—was established to investigate how the AIDS response could evolve in a new era of sustainable development.

Many observers were surprised when Indiana Governor Mike Pence issued an executive order on March 26, 2015, declaring a public health emergency after a rapidly escalating outbreak of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was identified in Scott County, a rural region on the Kentucky border. Others, however, had seen it coming. (Perspective)