But nothing less will do. Providing medical services and cheaper drugs to those already infected is decent and humane. However, the billions to be so spent will not stop one African from being newly infected. Even at the lower costs some African leaders have demanded, antiviral drugs consume a large amount of resources. At best it will take years before vaccines are developed, tested, mass-produced, and distributed.
Behavioral changes can save lives now , and at very low cost.
First, we need to overcome what remains of our own inner resistance to focusing on behavior. For too long in the United States, we faced powerful opposition to treating HIV like all other infectious diseases. Public health authorities were reluctant to promote testing and to advocate a moral obligation to inform one's past and prospective partners about one's HIV status. They claimed that once people's HIV status becomes known, they might be stigmatized or lose their job and health insurance. These arguments subsided as new laws better protected HIV patients and new drugs became available for them.