Cure ignorance, Cure AIDS

I've been developing a research project with a secondary student from the Melbourne Grammar School on HIV in Africa and its effects on economic productivity. Last week we penned a opinion piece which was carried by the Gulf Times of Dubai. 

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Cure ignorance, cure Aids 

It is a sad day for humanity when the foremost HIV/Aids scientist, Professor David Baltimore, has proclaimed that there is no foreseeable cure for the disease ("Vaccine for Aids unlikely to be found", Gulf News, February 16). The only cure for Aids is a cure of ignorance. That is the ignorance of the United States government and its approach to the HIV/Aids epidemic through President George W. Bush's emergency plan for Aids relief (Pepfar). Seventy eight per cent of Pepfar funds have been centred round a treatment based solution. As highlighted by UNAIDS [United Nation's programme on HIV/Aids], distribution of preventive aid must increase threefold to have any chance of eradicating the epidemic by 2015. Now that we accept that there will not be a HIV/Aids vaccine in our lifetime, the best strategy for ending the epidemic will be to prevent the spread of the disease. Alleviating suffering by treating victims is not enough.

From Mr H. Trent Moore
Melbourne, Australia