Whatever happened to AIDS?

[CorbinKale]

It was all over the news for years. There were concerts, global fund raisers and public service announcements all the time. Did someone cure it, or did we just lose interest?

[Tery]

No, nobody cured it. Unfortunately. The one thing that I respect Bush for is helping with the AIDS epidemic in Africa. THAT should be his legacy. Bless him, he did try.

But you have a good point, Corbin. Why the silence?

[Becks19]

It was all over the news for years. There were concerts, global fund raisers and public service announcements all the time. Did someone cure it, or did we just lose interest?

We have become complacent with Aids. It's been around awhile, so the fervor to raise money and awareness has lost it's urgency. Sad but true.

[GNTLGNT]

Agree with all...the sad truth is AIDS is still brutally stealing lives, but the media has moved us on to the next "Disease of the Week". A lot of humankind has the attention span of a gnat...and it's hard to stop that. We've gotten used to it...it's our generation's version of "The Black Death". We've heard of it, knew somebody afflicted or died of it-but it's scarily become commonplace-just another abandoned telethon cause...

[fushingfeef]

I lost my cousin to AIDS a dozen years ago and it does seem to be the forgotten disease. I believe South Park did an episode last year where they showed that AIDS could be cured with money (using Magic Johnson as an example). Good for them for at least trying to keep public awareness up.

[Srbo]

Well, as silly as it sounds, a couple of weeks ago, on American Idol, during the show called " Idol gives back " there was a detailed report on how AIDS is still very much present in Africa.
The footage they showed was indeed disturbing, but I hope that it brought the spotlight back to the disase at least a litlle bit.

[Watahoot]

You know what's interesting, the easily treatable conditions of diarrhea and pneumonia account for more child deaths in developing countries than AIDS and malaria combined...

[Pucker]

Maybe this is only an American perspective, but it seems to me that the "epidemic" has lost its cache here because it's easy to avoid and has become synonymous with certain aspects of society -- specifically intravenous drug abuse and homosexual promiscuity -- for which the bulk of the population has little sympathy. The other problem is that trying to render aid in places in the world where many of the governments are made up of -- for lack of a better word --pirates, creates credibility issues with humanitarian organizations and the people who would support them. That and, as has been mentioned, there is always some new tragedy splashed across the headlines and the rare combination of attention-deficity and the need for instant gratification makes this a difficult age for the long view.

[Bryan James]

Is it possible that if Big Pharma stands to make a lot more money by treating a disease instead of curing and/or innoculating against the same, they would opt for the long-term $$$ option?

[Becks19]

Is it possible that if Big Pharma stands to make a lot more money by treating a disease instead of curing and/or innoculating against the same, they would opt for the long-term $$$ option?

Absolutely!!!