HIV/AIDS virus: what is the score?

In a sign of both success and failure in combating the nation's AIDS crisis, federal officials said Monday that for the first time more than 1 million Americans are now living with the &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2003/01/16/42088.html ' target=_blank>HIV/AIDS virus.

Drug cocktails that became available a decade ago have helped HIV patients survive longer than ever before. But the number of new infections has stubbornly refused to fall despite years of efforts to prevent new cases and contain the outbreak, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It is good news in a way, because it means the medications are working," said Manuel Rodriguez, education director at the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., agency Community Health Care Center One. "But it poses a huge challenge in prevention, because there are more people with the virus."

Across the nation, money to take care of people infected with HIV is waning, tells the Kansas City Star.

According to Xinhuanet, the &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2002/10/01/37505_.html ' target=_blank>US Center for Disease Control and Prevention says more than one million Americans are infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.

The CDC believes that up to 1.2 million people could be living with the virus, the first time the HIV-positive population totaled more than one million since the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.