June 5 marks twenty-five years since the publication of the landmark report in the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) documenting what turned out to be the first five recorded cases of AIDS in the US. Since then, the number of people who have died from AIDS globally has exceeded 25 million, and last year the total number of people living with the virus grew to an all time high of 40 million. Two-thirds of these people live in sub-Saharan Africa, and new epidemics have broken out in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Within those 25 years, science has produced both great successes as well as disappointments. Scientists have not only identified the mode of transmission, the virus causing AIDS, and its genome but they have also developed nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (such as AZT), protease inhibitors (saquinavir), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (nevirapine), and most recently, a drug that prevents ...
