Nearly 30 years after the first cases were recognized in the United States, HIV/AIDS remains an incurable disease that is devastating large swaths of our country and the rest of the world. To understand the magnitude of the destruction, look around our nation's capital. Last month, D.C. health officials announced that 3 percent of city residents had full-blown AIDS or were infected with HIV. Not only is that infection rate on a par with rates in some African countries, but the D.C. data were based only on those who have been tested for HIV; the actual rate is probably much higher. Globally, an estimated 33 million people carry the virus. In 2007 alone, about 2.7 million new infections occurred.

... In the absence of a vaccine, three bold new approaches to controlling the HIV/AIDS pandemic are being discussed by those working in medicine and public health. These approaches are still in the conceptual and testing phases, but if applied as a group, it's possible they could have a dramatic effect.

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[Editor's note: The three approaches detailed in the complete article (click 'More' above) in the Washington Post are 1) pre-exposure prophylaxis, 2) universally available, voluntary, annual testing for HIV infection and immediately providing antiretroviral therapy and 3) access to lifelong HIV treatment.]