by Alicia M Prater PhD

Created on: October 04, 2007   Last Updated: September 16, 2010

The fight against HIV/AIDS is far from over. Since the first infection was brought to light in the United States in the 1980s, AIDS has been attributed to more than 22 million deaths and HIV currently infects more than 30 million people worldwide. According to the United Nations program UNAIDS, AIDS is the number one cause of death among reproductive-aged women worldwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (

CDC) continues to list HIV/AIDS as the one of the five most common causes of death among adults aged 25-44, with 3.7 per 100,000 people dying of the disease in the United States. Over half of all HIV-positive individuals live on one continent, Africa, where it is decimating the economy and future generations. In developed countries treatments have staved off AIDS and prolonged the lives of HIV-positive patients, but this has opened doors to new problems as well.

The discovery of protease inhibitors and anti-retroviral cocktails have given HIV-positive patients new life, but their days are subject to scheduled meds, preventative treatments, cross reactions, side effects, and fear of sharing their infection with loved ones. The most successful treatment regimen to date, HAART, costs up to $15,000 a year per patient (MedicalNews) and has no long-term guarantee. HIV mutates with such veracity that missing a couple of days of meds can result in drug resistance and a need to alter the cocktail. Some individuals do not respond to treatment at all (HAART resistance), their viral strain is either mutated beyond attack or they are infected with multiple strains that help each other overcome the drugs. New ways of attacking HIV need to be developed and a better way of protecting the HIV-positive population from other infections needs to be found.

Misinformation and miseducation has led some high risk groups to falsely think that AIDS has been conquered. The way Laurie Garrett put it in her book "Betrayal of Trust: The collapse of global public health" is that some people think that if they get it they can pop a pill and be okay. Also, there is a lack of public health resources in the urban centers of American cities, leading to increases in HIV infection rates, as well as other STDs, despite previous declines. In addition, condom use is not adequately advocated. This is the same situation in Africa where a lack of resources, as well as proper training, result in the same situation. In order to properly fight HIV and AIDS, a better public health system is

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