How to improve HIV treatment and to prevent the spreading of the virus are two questions that lie on the lips of each of the 25,000 scientists, politicians, physicians, and HIV activists attending the 17^th International AIDS Conference held for the first time in Mexico.

It is for the first time when such a significant event is held in a developing country and the second large conference in the 27-year history of the disease.

Scientists have been struggling for some time to come with new treatments for those infected with HIV virus. There is no current vaccine or drug to completely cure the condition, but existing drugs give infected people the chance to a nearly normal life.

However, this is not enough if we want to reduce the number of people dying from AIDS and the number of people newly infected. About 25 million people have died since AIDS first became known. Two million people died last year alone. There are currently around 33 million people infected with the virus worldwide, 70 percent of which living in Africa because access to the right drugs is improving but there are not enough health care workers to administer them and to monitor the population. Currently, for every person who gets antiretroviral treatment, two to three people are newly infected.

Given the situation, it is crucial to find a treatment to refrain HIV from making new victims. Scientists are optimist that someday protection against HIV infection can be offered during sex. There are currently three trials underway around the world. According to a report in the Lancet by Nancy Padian of Women’s Global Health Imperative, they are “showing great promise.” The trials involve 2,400 drug injectors in Thailand, 1,200 heterosexual men and women in Botswana and 3,000 homosexual men in America, Africa and Asia. Previous trials on primates suggest that drugs are effective and can prevent disease from being passed. However, only time will tell of they are successful in humans.

Of course, it is important to find ways to cure AIDS, but it is more important to find ways to prevent HIV from spreading. This is again a hot topic on the lists of the scientists present at the conference. There is a need for more programs to teach people, especially the young (a category more predisposed to infection) about the risks they’re exposing each time they have unprotected sex. HIV is the one of those risks.

Drug users need to be aware that used syringes put them at risk of getting HIV virus. In the US, between 25 and 33 percent of injecting drug users are infected with HIV. In Australia, where clean needle exchange is widely promoted, only 3 percent to 6 percent of injecting drug users are HIV positive, meaning that measures against HIV spreading are working. Such needle exchange programs exist in 77 countries.

Health officials in Rwanda, Kenya and other African countries, where almost 70 percent of the total cases of HIV infection are registered, are increasing the number of circumcisions in young men. Such a procedure can reduce the risk a man will be infected through having sex with an infected woman by about 60 percent, studies have showed.

Of course, no procedure or drug could replace condoms, which are the most effective way of protection, but they are not always available and there are people who refuse to use them. In their case, circumcision is the best solution, although not a 100 percent sure one.

Reducing poverty rates is also a way of reducing HIV infection rates. Poverty has often been linked with higher rates of HIV infections because poor people lack money for education, thus becoming more predisposed to a series of illnesses, including HIV. Poverty also prevents them from seeking medical treatment, thus reducing their chance of survival if infected with HIV. Finally yet importantly, racial disparity should disappear in order to reduce HIV rates. People should be treated as equal in fighting HIV.

"As we know there's still a lot of work for us to do and the knowledge we're gaining by being here is going to help us to do our work even better,” Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka who heads a South Africa delegation said in his speech at the conference.