New year, new millennium - so dig in now for the new century. Our wish list for 2000 certainly begins with some treatment guidelines for the UK. (If you knew the full story behind this you wouldn"t believe it). We hope it"s suffice to say that these never appeared during 1999, and that this is probably the biggest contributing factor to why you weren"t able to get routine ultrasensitive viral load, resistance and drug-level monitoring tests. Ask your doctor, ask your clinic, ask your commissioners - see page 3.

In this issue we have the usual mix of things that make us mad, and things that inspire us (hopefully the later comes with immediate practical consequences), so here goes with a quick preview time...

Treatment for kids often falls behind that of adults. How about in 2000, the UK taking a lead in this? One immediate suggestion would be to use drug level monitoring tests for all children NOW who are using a PI or NNRTI in their combination. They are cheap to perform and able to provide much better information for getting dosing right than the current guessing system. We interview paediatrician Grace Aldrovandi who"s a fierce advocate for using these tests with kids, and with this and other strategies "treats HIV as a disease that could kill you". Heavens, this novel approach could actually end up saving lives big time - see pages 4-7.

On the subject of tests it"s good to report two studies that we actually approve of - the ERA study will provide resistance testing and the OPIUM study TDM. Both are run by the MRC - see pages 3 & 11 for details. Plus optimistic news on NNRTIs on page 10.

And a grumble - Europe gets access to new drugs later than people in the US and some European countries get access way before the UK. Want this to change? - see our piece on expanded access for ABT-378 on page 2 (although at last this drug may be available). Another is, that despite heavy marketing, we don"t think that triple-nukes have proven as effective as other combinations, particularly for people with high viral loads although they are being routinely prescribed - see pages 12-13.

Many of us never thought we"d see 2000, and HIV isn"t over yet, but your chances of getting through to 2001 are better now than they have ever been. They are better still if you are given access to the treatments you need and good up-to-date information. Ahem, on that note, sorry we"re so late with this issue - there must be a New Years resolution in there somewhere!

Peace, light, love and happiness through 2000.