It has been twenty-five years since the first case of AIDS/HIV was reported. Little was known of the disease then, but the severity of the epidemic has changed all that, or has it?

25 years ago, a doctor named Michael Gottlieb wrote about an unknown case he had, a young patient who was suffering severe weight loss and a fever. The patient was a gay model who had moved to Los Angeles to live openly among the tolerant community. Gottlieb was a first-year assistant professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) at the time. His patient died within a year and after more patients with similar symptoms appeared, Gottlieb wrote a report in a medical journal. Other Doctors soon recognized similar symptoms in other patients, and AIDS was first recorded as a fatal disease.

Since then, doctors, researchers and medical practitioners have yielded much information on the disease, the treatment and prevention, yet popular knowledge of AIDS remains somewhat lacking.

Africa has emerged as the epicenter of the disease with Sub-Saharan Africa being the worst hit. AIDS education in these countries has been commendable. Ask any adult, teenager or child in Africa about AIDS, and they could probably spit out more facts than your local doctor. This is partly due to the fact that many of them have witnessed a loved one suffering with AIDS/HIV. However, is education helping? Are people fully aware of the effects, prevention and treatment of the disease?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), twenty-five million AIDS related deaths makes AIDS the most destructive epidemic in recorded history. Despite the increase in awareness, education, and access to care, 3.1 million people died of AIDS in 2005 alone. 4.9 million people were newly infected by AIDS last year. With all the information available on the transference of AIDS/HIV, these numbers should be much smaller. This indicates major education gaps within communities.

Efforts by government, celebrities, and educators have decreased the incidence of HIV among gay men in Western countries, among sex workers in Thailand and Cambodia, and among drug users in Spain and Brazil. However, the disease is a worldwide epidemic and not confined to any specific group or community. The number of AIDS victims has increased everywhere except in the Caribbean where it has remained the same, according to the WHO.

So with government sponsored education and world awareness days, why aren’t the numbers decreasing? After 25 years of research and development one would think that there would have been some significant progress. HIV is not confined to the poor, drug addicts or any minority group. In fact, new research shows that AIDS is prevalent among the upper class in Western countries. What used to be a disease of the ‘sinners’ now inhabits the tiny bodies of babies, of faithful mothers, fathers and partners.

Recent publications indicate that the source of AIDS comes from wild Chimpanzees in Southern Cameroon. They say that Chimp hunters may have contracted AIDS as far back as the 1930s, and that cases may have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, because symptoms vary so with AIDS patients, doctors never really put two and two together.

There has been remarkable progress in AIDS research to the point where HIV infection does not mean immediate death. People can live for a number of years on antiretroviral drugs.

After 25 years of awareness, AIDS is still prevalent and will continue to be until a cure is found. In the meantime education is vital to saving lives and preventing the spread of the incurable disease.