Some people express surprise that on this international AIDS Day, despite two decades of intensive medical research, there is still no cure for the lethal infection caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). But there are cures for almost no virus infections because of a paucity of anti-viral drugs that are both effective against viruses and safe for humans. Intensive and extensive research over many decades into a cure for the common cold has produced no such cure: still the best that can be done for a sufferer is to ply remedies that may ameliorate some of the symptoms of the cold. The difference between the common cold and HIV infection in this regard is that the cold is self-limiting while HIV kills.
Advances against viral infections which have caused epidemics and pandemics in the past, have generally been by way of vaccines which enable the human body's innate defences to ward off the infections. This is why childhood immunisations are so important against such viral diseases as measles, mumps, polio and rubella. It was mass immunisation against smallpox that enabled the World Health Organisation to declare in 1980 that the world was rid of that fatal virus disease.
The search for a vaccine against HIV infection has been intense but, because of the virus's capacity to mutate frequently, has so far been unsuccessful. Despite trials that are continuing into several potential vaccines, it is likely that the search will continue for some years if an effective preventive is to be found to HIV. And, despite cocktails of drugs that can now (rather expensively) ameliorate the symptoms and slow the progress of HIV infection, prevention of infection is still the only certain means in the world of preventing death by HIV.
With an estimated 36 million people now living with HIV infections, and a further 21 million dead from HIV/AIDS, the world's effort with attempted preventive measures has largely failed. Also failed are most efforts to deal with the HIV problems in Africa, the world's worst-affected continent. There will be some encouragement for those trying to combat AIDS in the southern part of that continent that President Mbeki of South Africa is distancing himself and his erroneous theories about the disease from his country's efforts to fight HIV, which has now afflicted 20 per cent of the adult population. But there is still little sign that the wealthier nations of the world are going to exercise their moral responsibility to provide Africa with the costly drugs - which most Africans cannot afford - to ameliorate the situation.
Ireland's preventive efforts are clearly in need of the most urgent revision and re-invention, given that the past year has seen a 100 per cent increase in the number of new cases here. As the routine ante-natal screening tests on women are showing, HIV/AIDS is no longer just an ailment visited upon male homosexuals or intravenous drug addicts. It can infect anyone exposed to it and is infecting a growing number of young people, many with no awareness of the disease or its lethality. Add to that the recent warnings that syphilis is also on the increase again, and the risks here are almost incalculable. An instant and effective public education programme is imperative.