We need a comprehensive approach that combines prevention, care and research. We've long since learned that prevention will be only partly effective if people have no hope of treatment and therefore little reason to learn their serostatus. Neither prevention nor treatment will be able to reach all people affected by H.I.V. Keeping infection rates down by supporting effective prevention efforts will help us reach more people in need of drugs. Successful prevention, care and research programs will need a vast mobilization of resources, as was recently called for by Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general. For children this is key.
Programs do exist.
In hundreds of villages in Malawi, with the assistance from Save the Children, local AIDS committees identify the most vulnerable children and figure out ways to plan for their futures. The possibilities are endless.