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In the more than three decades since researchers started seeing the first signs of AIDS, millions have lost their lives hoping modern medicine might produce a cure in time. While a cure still eludes the brightest minds, treatment for people who have AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) has come a long way.
For instance, someone who suspects they are at risk today can take a daily pill, Truvala, also known as PrEP, that proactively minimizes the likelihood he will contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Projects to reduce the spread of AIDS in the United States and Africa have made excellent headway thanks to a collaboration between international organizations led by the U.S. government, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and partners around the world.
In just the past ten years, vaccine trials have slowly but surely increased success rates. Doctors for an American named Timothy Ray Brown recently announced he is the first person ever to be cured of HIV, thanks to two stem cell transplants he received to eliminate both HIV and leukemia.
Researchers remain cautiously optimistic that more breakthroughs lie ahead, but many join those who remember the AIDS crisis at its most deadly in warning against complacency. In the United States, gay men are uniquely affected. Intravenous drug users are too. In countries like South Africa, mothers who are HIV positive are instructed to take action so they don’t pass it on to their children.
More than 30 years after this crisis began, AIDS continues to be one of the top public health challenges facing the world today.
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