Tanzania has made substantial progress in strengthening the national response to HIV in recent years. This case study describes different aspects of the response made in the Mbeya region over the last 20 years. More than 2 million people live in the region and it was, and continues to be one of the worst-affected parts of the country. However, HIV prevalence which reached an estimated high of 20% in the mid-1990s has been in decline since then. It is very likely that the work of the Mbeya Regional AIDS Control Programme which began in 1988 has made an important contribution to reversing the trend of the epidemic.
