KPLU's Humanosphere blogger Tom Paulson has a great post today about why the Gates Foundation's director of HIV and tuberculosis programs feels this year's World AIDS day is different than it's dozens of predecessors.
Here is an exerpt from Humanosphere.org:
It’s World AIDS Day, a day we’ve been marking for decades. Millions of people are still dying of AIDS every year, two people still getting infected every day for every person put on treatment.
But this year, it’s different.
“It’s night and day, at least when it comes to prevention,” said Dr. Stefano Bertozzi, director of HIV and tuberculosis programs at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “The landscape has shifted dramatically.”
Progess has been made in reducing the rate of new HIV infections through education, safe sex campaigns and the like. The world community has succeeded in getting more people on life-saving treatments. But the pandemic continues worldwide, with numbers (33 million infected, nearly 2 million dying every year) that are daunting if not mind-numbing.
