While a breakthrough in HIV treatment two years ago was greeted with euphoria, a leading scientist in AIDS research says the war against the epidemic is far from over.
"This epidemic will be with us for generations to come. It will not go away anytime soon. In fact, it's likely to get much worse," David Ho, a professor at Rockefeller University and director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York, told a Sunday news conference in Tokyo.
When Ho and his colleagues, in a dramatic breakthrough, developed a treatment two years ago using potent anti-HIV drug cocktails, medical circles were excited over the prospect that the virus would be eradicated. But such optimism faded as inequities in treatment and care between rich and poor nations became more visible.