In 1996, the global HIV community gathered in Vancouver, Canada, for the XI International AIDS Conference and shared the clear evidence that triplecombination antiretroviral treatment held the power to stem the tide of deaths from AIDS. The HIV treatment era had begun. As we gathered again in Vancouver in July, 2015, it was clear that a new transformative moment is upon us.

A candidate tetravalent dengue vaccine is being assessed in three clinical trials involving more than 35,000 children between the ages of 2 and 16 years in Asian–Pacific and Latin American countries. The researchers report the results of long-term follow-up interim analyses and integrated efficacy analyses.

The Thailand floods in 2011 caused unprecedented economic damage in the Chao Phraya River basin. To diagnose the flood hazard characteristics, this study analyses the hydrologic sensitivity of flood runoff and inundation to rainfall. The motivation is to address why the seemingly insignificant monsoon rainfall, or 1.2 times more rainfall than for past large floods, including the ones in 1995 and 2006, resulted in such devastating flooding. To quantify the hydrologic sensitivity, this study simulated long-term rainfall–runoff and inundation for the entire river basin (160 000 km2).

Spatially extensive and persistent drought episodes have repeatedly influenced human history, including the 'Strange Parallels' drought event in monsoon Asia during the mid-18th century. Here we explore the dynamics of sustained monsoon failure using observed and tree-ring reconstructed drought patterns and a 1300-year pre-industrial community earth system model control run. Both modern observational and climate model drought patterns during years with extremely weakened South Asian monsoon resemble those reconstructed for the Strange Parallels drought.

After several tsunami events with disastrous consequences around the world, coastal countries have realized the need to be prepared to minimize human mortality and damage to coastal infrastructures, livelihoods and resources. The international scientific community is striving to develop and validate methodologies for tsunami hazard and vulnerability and risk assessments. The vulnerability of coastal communities is usually assessed through the definition of sets of indicators based on previous literature and/or post-tsunami reports, as well as on the available data for the study site.