Clinton releases road map for AIDS-free generation

WASHINGTON -- In an ambitious road map for slashing the global spread of AIDS, the Obama administration says treating people sooner and more rapid expansion of proven tools could help even the hardest-hit countries begin turning the tide of the epidemic in the next three to five years.

"An AIDS-free generation is not just a rallying cry -- it is a goal that is within our reach," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ordered the blueprint, said. ". . . HIV may well be with us into the future but the disease that it causes need not be," she said Thursday at the State Department.

President Barack Obama echoed that promise. "We stand at a tipping point in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we can realize our historic opportunity to bring that fight to an end," Obama said in a proclamation for World AIDS Day .

Some 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and despite a decline in new infections in the last decade, 2.5 million people were infected last year. Given those staggering figures, what does an AIDS-free generation mean? That virtually no babies are born infected, that young people have a lower risk than today of becoming infected, and that people who already have HIV would receive lifesaving treatment.

That last step is key: Treating people early in their infection, before they get sick, not only helps them survive but also dramatically cuts the chances of infecting others.

Yesterday's report from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief outlines how progress could continue at current spending levels, something far from certain as Congress and Obama struggle to avert looming budget cuts at year's end, or how faster progress is possible with stepped-up commitments from hard-hit countries themselves.