Author: Garrett Wachoski-Dark

Approximately 35 million people are currently infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) – nearly the entire population of Canada! If left untreated most infected individuals would die to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) related illnesses. To date more than 20 million lives have been claimed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These statistics are menacing but how did they become so? After all, did Margaret Heckler, US Health and Human Services Secretary in the 1980’s, not promise a cure within only 2 years? The problem is that HIV is quite different from most viruses we are used to.