Basically eradicating polio took near-universal childhood injections. That's really doable outside of extraordinarily remote places like mountain villages in Afghanistan, which coincidentally is where polio remains endemic.
Basically eradicating HIV with the tools we have available instead requires most every infected person to (1) know they're infected, and (2) stay on treatment for the rest of their life. These are especially difficult requirements in places with poor medical infrastructure, like sub-Saharan Africa.
Comparing the two is really comparing apples and oranges at a technical level. HIV is just vastly harder to knock out, despite immense advances in technology.
That said, MSM communities in advanced countries have experienced consistently lower transmission over the last few years, probably due to the prevalence of PreP. There's a chance that HIV in those communities will be very rare in the coming decades. Hopefully the rest of the world will follow.
Or who knows? Maybe an HIV vaccine will finally prove effective some year? It's not as if they've stopped trying, they just always get halted early because they don't work. It's very disheartening.
jemidiah t1_jbs32ux wrote
Reply to comment by potatthrowaway in Greg Louganis auctioning Olympic medals to help AIDS services center by bagelman4000
Basically eradicating polio took near-universal childhood injections. That's really doable outside of extraordinarily remote places like mountain villages in Afghanistan, which coincidentally is where polio remains endemic.
Basically eradicating HIV with the tools we have available instead requires most every infected person to (1) know they're infected, and (2) stay on treatment for the rest of their life. These are especially difficult requirements in places with poor medical infrastructure, like sub-Saharan Africa.
Comparing the two is really comparing apples and oranges at a technical level. HIV is just vastly harder to knock out, despite immense advances in technology.
That said, MSM communities in advanced countries have experienced consistently lower transmission over the last few years, probably due to the prevalence of PreP. There's a chance that HIV in those communities will be very rare in the coming decades. Hopefully the rest of the world will follow.
Or who knows? Maybe an HIV vaccine will finally prove effective some year? It's not as if they've stopped trying, they just always get halted early because they don't work. It's very disheartening.