AIDS in South and Southeast Asia. Preventing transmission of HIV: a biological and medical perspective.

This article by Myron S. Cohen presents a summary on the transmission of HIV and development of prevention strategies. Although more than 70% of HIV infections is sexually transmitted chances of acquiring HIV from sexual exposure is highly variable but is often very inefficient. The magnitude of the HIV epidemic could be explained by other factors which include the duration of the amount of time a person remains contagious and the number of people exposed. On the other hand infectiousness of HIV is determined by the amount of virus in the blood or genital secretions and special features of the viral swarm which can render the virus either more or less contagious. Cohen emphasized that the enemy is the virus not the person infected with the virus. In view of this he pointed out that prevention strategies must include those who are susceptible and also those who are already infected.