HIV gets a lot of press because it is both deadly and presently incurable. And because an awful lot of people have it - between 35-40 million globally. In fact, more people die of HIV/AIDS each year than of TB or Malaria, making it the deadliest single communicable disease on the planet at present (respiratory and diarrheal diseases collectively kill more, but that's a collection of different infections). Also, the retroviral drugs that treat HIV are expensive to produce, difficult to distribute, and require diligence in taking them.maglag wrote:Well hasn't failed either. Most humans still aren't infected with HIV since most humans are smart enough to take basic precautions.
At the end of the day HIV is not an airborne disease nor something that's transported by food/water or simple skin touch. Plenty of other diseases make a lot more damage.
HIV only gets bigger headlines because rich people who want as much sex and drugs as they can risk catching it, and then cannot be cured.
An effective vaccine for HIV would likely save tens of millions of human lives over the course of this century and save tens of billions of dollars, making it quite possibly the most win-win medical discovery you could achieve.
