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The co-discoverer of the HIV virus says young people are complacent about the spread of HIV and AIDS. Doctor Luc Montagnier says Americans need to do a better job teaching young people how to prevent the virus.
More than 20 years ago two doctors discovered the HIV virus is what develops into AIDS. Since then numerous breakthroughs have turned HIV into a treatable disease. Dr. Luc Montagnier is a French scientist and says the new generation has grown up with no experience of HIV as a death sentence.
Montaignier says one new research area focuses on turning HIV positive patients into HIV negative survivors. But he cautions a breakthrough of that nature is still years away and the best way to be HIV negative is through prevention. George Worthington is the executive director of the Friends of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention. He says there is a propensity among people who are not scientifically trained to believe that AIDS is a manageable condition.
Marcie Stoll is the president of the Coleman College for Health Professionals at Houston Community College. She says when she first taught nursing almost nothing was known about HIV or AIDS. Now there is a wealth of information but she says medical schools need to teach aggressively about the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control estimate about 900,000 people in the U.S. have HIV and an estimated 36 million people have HIV or AIDS worldwide.
