Human, the Great Conquerer

Not long time, Aids was held in horror and infection meant slow and painful death, not only of the victim but many times of his/her partner, and quite a few times children too. It was argued that it was a punishment of God for non-virtuous living. And almost everybody used to tend to agree. It seemed so unconquerable that people believed that no one but God could create such a thing.

But not anymore. The third generation drugs are now so effective that if used regularly, the patients can lead an almost normal life. The children will grow up normally, can get married and also have children. The probability of children of HIV mothers being HIV positive has gone down less than 50% already.

Even though HIV has not been cured as such, but bringing it under control in some 20 years or so is a big achievement in itself. We can expect that next few years will bring in vaccine for HIV and a cure for it too.

So conquest of plague of 19th century, influenza in 20th century, HIV in 21st century.

Long live the curiosity. Long live the progress.

--
Rahul Vaidya
[ http://reasonablethoughtsfromme.blogspot.com/ ]

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same
-- Oscar Wilde