Despite setbacks, HIV can be beaten

It is a tribute to human ingenuity and determination that aids no longer makes headlines. That is because hiv, the virus which causes it, is on the run. According to the latest update by unaids, the un programme that keeps tabs on such matters, deaths from aids-related illnesses have been falling since 2004 and new infections since 1996. Indeed, the fact that the number of people living with the virus (currently about 38m) continues to rise is actually good news. It means they are being kept alive by antiretroviral drug therapy (art), rather than dropping out of the statistics by dying. But hiv still kills in numbers that would never be off the front pages if a war, rather than a virus, were the cause. So far, it has ended the lives of some 40m people, with 650,000 of those deaths having happened in 2021.