ABSTRACT
When Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was first recognised in early 1981, few would have predicted that it would escalate into a modern-day plague, with over 40 million individuals infected worldwide. Indeed, AIDS is an exceptional infectious disease, posing challenges in terms of immediate needs and long-term development. During 2005, almost five million people were newly infected with HIV, the highest annual incidence rate since the beginning of the epidemic (UNAIDS/WHO 2005a). In the same year, more than three million individuals would have died of AIDS, with over 20 million having died since the first cases of AIDS were identified in the early 1980s.
