Because of so much potential illness in the ranks of productive individuals, Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, recently called AIDS one of the world's biggest security problems. There are 35,000 to 50,000 new infections per year. So are greater numbers of younger people and increasing numbers of women. One out of every three new infections is in women. More new infections are also showing up in smaller towns, particularly in the Southeast and between urban areas in the Northeast.
Many people think that the epidemic is over.
I wish that were so, but we still have a long way to go before we have relegated AIDS to the dustbin of history.