The issue opens with a short article informing about the outcomes of the Partnership Annual Conference (PAC), which took place in Oslo and marked the end of the Norwegian Presidency of the NDPHS. The new NDPHS Strategy, which was adopted during the conference, is briefly described in the following article. The following two articles address the issue of health in prison as a part of general public health and describe the prison health conference held immediately before the PAC. The issue closes with an article presenting the outcomes of a drug and alcohol prevention project among youth in St. Petersburg.

This issue opens with an article from the Chairman of the HIV/AIDS Expert Group, which outlines the pressing need to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Northern Dimensions Area. Following this article are the conference outcomes from the 5th European Conference on Clinical and Social Research on AIDS and Drugs, which took place 28-30 April 2009 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The next article describes the NDPHS contributions to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, and presents how the European Commission addressed the issues of public health and social welfare in the recently announced Strategy and its Action Plan. The issue closes with an article revealing the health and social affairs priorities of the fast approaching Swedish EU Presidency.