WASHINGTON, 18 December: Are we winning or losing the battle against AIDS? It is a timely question as we close out a dramatic year filled with good news and bad.
First, there was the announcement that an experimental AIDS vaccine from Merck & Co. had proved ineffective in an advanced trial and, even worse, may have caused an increased susceptibility (modtagelighed) to HIV infection in volunteers.
Then came a report by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV-AIDS and the World Health Organization that we are beginning to see a small reduction in the number of annual new HIV infections globally.
So what does this mean? How does it add up?
Unfortunately, we are still losing against AIDS, badly. But there are good reasons to think we can win, with the tool that holds the hope of eliminating, and not just curbing, the epidemic: a preventive vaccine. The failure of one product does not rule out success on that front.
Having changed their methodology, UNAIDS and the WHO now estimate that there are 33 million people living with HIV-AIDS, down from 40 million, their 2006 figure.
Still, AIDS remains the worlds fourth-leading cause of death, and it is No. 1 in sub-Saharan Africa. It has killed at least 23 million people.
Kilde: The Push Journal
