The only convention consistently used throughout the Encyclopedia (aside from the listing of standard citations to outside publications) is that of the hyperlink. For the uninitiated, hyperlinks are interactive links that, when “clicked” by a left mouse button, allow the reader to “jump” to another document containing additional information related to the current topic. The presence of a hyperlink is indicated when the cursor’s shape changes from an arrow to a pointing hand, and by blue boldface highlighting. On this website, hyperlinks will generally transport the reader to documents or sub-indexes within the Encyclopedia website itself, but may sometimes lead to another website or Internet archive.

In some cases, a few links may be inactive (blue bold highlighting, but no response when clicked), or may appear in bold italic font face. These are indications of documents that we have not yet added to the archive, for one reason or another, but should be adding soon. The Encyclopedia website must be considered a work in progress, and will probably remain so due to the rapidly changing nature of AIDS medicine (see below). We ask the reader’s patience while we continue to add new and updated documents to this extensive archive in the future.

The reader should also keep in mind that in some cases, only limited reliable data may be available for some AIDS treatments. This fact, and space limitations, may prevent us in some cases from posting all information available on every single topic. Instead, we have chosen to concentrate on only the most reliable information currently available on opportunistic infections and those therapies most commonly used. On these topics, we have tried to provide as much information as space will allow.

Finally, it is one of the curses of any new field of medicine that information changes rapidly; and this is perhaps more true of AIDS medical care than any other field of medicine. AIDS medical information can rapidly become out-dated, and this is the main reason why the dissemination of AIDS medical information must be an ongoing process. It is also why we have chosen to publish this collection of AIDS medical information electronically, rather than on paper: website documents are far simpler and cheaper to update! We make our best efforts to always provide the most current and reliable information available from our sources, but a quick look through the material held here will reveal that in some areas we may fall behind in this difficult task. We therefore ask the reader’s kind indulgence as we change and update materials held here. Wherever possible, standard citations for any new research developments will be appended to documents when and where needed, so that the motivated reader will be able to acquire information on new developments easily. We also encourage our readers to visit all source organizations from which our materials are taken in order to stay fully informed on AIDS medical issues.