Success of Antiretroviral Drugs ‘No Cause for Complacency,’ Baltimore Sun Editorial Says

Although more people in the United States each year are able to live with HIV/AIDS due to antiretroviral therapy, there is "no cause for complacency," a Baltimore Sun editorial says. Living with HIV/AIDS is "often a very difficult existence," due to the severity of the side effects of antiretroviral drugs, complicated drug regimens and the development of drug-resistant HIV strains, the Sun says. Prevention programs therefore "remain as vital as ever," as "[t]oo many people aren't getting the word, have become complacent, are gambling by having unprotected sex, don't know they carry the virus, or are failing to inform their partners if they do," the editorial says. "[T]hanks to ever-improving medications, deadly AIDS may become a chronic disease," the editorial says, concluding that "[l]iving with AIDS is preferable to dying from it, but not by nearly enough to take the chance" (Baltimore Sun, 8/12).