ABSTRACT
Everyone agrees that eradication of an infectious disease is a desired state since once the infectious agent has been eradicated, we need not worry about the microbe and constantly monitor the environment to be certain the microbe is under control. Unfortunately, eradication is much simpler in theory than in practice. The speed of intercontinental travel makes it virtually impossible to limit an infectious microbe to a certain region. Deficiencies are not due to insufficient knowledge since the ways to reduce the risk of contracting HIV are well known. And they are not due to too few resources: The economic cost of adequate prevention programs would be a pittance of all health care expenditures and only a fraction of what we are spending to develop drugs against HIV-AIDS. Efforts to prevent the heterosexual transmission of the HIV among African Americans are complicated by other problems.
