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AIDS: Good News At Last

Finally! Thanks to prevention efforts and promising new drugs, fewer people developed AIDS in 1996 than in 1995. It is the first such drop in the 16-year history of the awful epidemic. Deaths from aids also declined in 1996.

"We are making progress," says Dr. David Satcher, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus that causes AIDS is called HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus. People get HIV through body fluids, including blood. When HIV enters the body, it can hide out for years while making copies of itself. By the time an HIV-infected person develops aids, a huge army of the virus is on the attack. AIDS destroys the immune system, which enables humans to fight off illness.

New drugs called protease (pro-tee-ace) inhibitors interfere with hiv's ability to create copies of itself. The drugs are expensive and don't work for every patient. But many HIV-infected people taking the drugs are living longer without getting AIDS.

Doctors are working on an HIV vaccine. "We must not let up in our determination to put an end to this epidemic," says Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala.

Next: Saturn, Here We Come!